


In Cold Blood

by nbj, TheDoctorFromTheLibrary



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Child Abuse, Episode: s01e18 The Waterbending Master, Episode: s01e19-20 The Siege of the North, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Past Child Abuse, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27008761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nbj/pseuds/nbj, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorFromTheLibrary/pseuds/TheDoctorFromTheLibrary
Summary: After his ship's blown up, Zuko takes a vessel to the North Pole directly instead of hiding among Zhao's crew. He lands in the wrong spot and is captured by the Northern Water Tribe, who'll stop at nothing to get valuable information from their prisoner.Chief Arnook enlists Sokka's help for his knowledge and experience with the Fire Nation and the prince. Now the young southern boy is torn between doing what's right and doing what's necessary.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 133
Kudos: 372





	1. Blood and Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> After a long, fun year of work, nbj and I present you our little project. We hope you enjoy it.  
> Updates on Wednesdays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. If we missed anything, please let us know.

Under normal circumstances, Tui and La, under _any_ other circumstances, Nuka would certainly call himself a patient man. He was, after all, a father to three young children, if that did not show the world his patience, he couldn’t say what would. But after stomping through the ice laced snowfields for seven hours and digging at every bloodspot where they had set up snares some days before, – with bare hands as to not accidentally destroy valuable pelt and leather – they still had not found any prey under the layers of snow. Only empty but closed snares.

Nuka’s nerves lay blank. He understood very well that the waterbenders of the tribe were needed back at the city, entrusted with the more important and urgent tasks of reconstruction and protection. The ice storm had, after all, left considerable holes in their defences and brought the bigger part of the city’s supply chain to a complete halt by destroying the fine mechanics in the gates and other machinery. Nevertheless, he felt that it would have been easy to spare one, only one bender for each search party. Then, they would at least not have to use their hands to dig and get too stiff from the cold.

Soon, he would no longer have enough strength or range of movement left to grip his spear tightly if they should encounter whatever had raided their snares before they could. Or whoever. He must have mumbled his thoughts out loud under his foggy breath because the man to his left glanced at him hissing: “Don’t be a chicken-gull! How on earth would a firebender end up here, in the outback of the north pole? You have told your kids too many bedtime stories, Nuka. Even if there was one, out here they would die anyway.”

But Nuka did not quite share his comrade’s opinion and nonchalance. “We still should make _sure_. Or would you want one of those ash-faces to crawl back out of the ice? You have heard the stories! Their cursed bending burns even inside of them. They say that sometimes even after being frozen solid for days, some melted their way out of the ice. Looked like corpses even more than they already do but could move and walk and...” He shuddered involuntarily at the ghastly mental image.

The other tribesman gave him a long, amused, glance. However, he had at least accepted the possibility, because Aput practically spat into Nuka’s face: “Nasty monsters! If we find one alive, we can do with them as we please. Imagine doing to them what they did to Takao. Ha, that would be good. Just imagine that being the real reason we are digging in bloody snow here. Maybe it motivates you a bit. Sure as fuck keeps _me_ motivated out here.” With those last words, he breathed hot air onto his hands – to which avail Nuka was not sure though, as they were covered by gloves anyway and therefore not touched by the breath in the slightest – and bent down at yet another crimson spot in the snow.

Nuka did not yet join his comrade on the ground. Instead, he let his gaze wander, trying to keep his thoughts from reminding him of young Takao’s tragic demise. Turning back, he could barely see the city’s walls anymore. Granted, the white walls were hard to distinguish from the snowy landscape surrounding it, but he could not help the slight doubt whether they were still within their assigned field of search.

He turned around to voice his concerns when suddenly something ahead of them caught his eye. The moment he focused on the spot, whatever it had been was gone already. A shadow, movement? Or just the wind blowing some snow?

He tapped Aput on the shoulder and quickly put his fist over his lips to signal silence. At the other’s questioning expression, he pointed towards where he had seen something – or not seen, he was still not sure – and then proceeded to sneak there. Nuka tightened his grip on the spear’s wooden shaft, but his numb fingers barely registered the movement or change in pressure. As he walked forwards step by step, his body cowered as to be as low over the ground as possible, the blood roaring in his ears getting louder and louder. If there was any sound, he probably would not even hear it. Every muscle in his body tensed. He was ready to fight, to jump, to attack – ready to kill. He was not ready to defend. The white world was black by the time he hit the snow. 

Blood roaring in his ears was the last thing he’d heard – and it was the first thing that registered before the throbbing pain in and outside his head took over his focus of attention. With a groan, he shifted, instinctively trying to cover as much of his hurting head with the cooling fresh snow.

“Nuka!” 

His eyes snapped open. White.

“Damn it. You and your stupid stories! Get up, man!” The annoyance carried worry. How annoying. 

He moved his head again and the white was replaced by grey and red and brown as he turned away from the sky above him to see– It took him a moment before he truly grasped the scene before him. There, a few steps away, stood his hunting-comrade, head turned towards him, but with his right foot firmly planted on somebody’s head. Finally snapping free from the last strings of unconsciousness holding his senses, Nuka rolled over his side to a standing position. Deeming the dizziness bearable, he took the few steps between them to see his attacker.

The white and grey clothes would have kept the stranger almost invisible in the snow, if not for the snare around his now bleeding leg. Aput had bound the attacker’s hands tightly and took his foot off his head, ignoring his feeble protests. Gold. Red. Fire. For a moment, Nuka forgot to breathe, barely hearing his comrade’s curses, as he stared into the golden-eyed and hideously burned face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: blood.


	2. Nothing Left

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

The watertribesmen had tied him to one of their buffalo yaks, forcing him to walk behind them as they rode. Zuko had struggled when they’d grabbed his arms and pulled him along, but not anymore. He had to save all his energy to keep walking straight.

Each step sent a jolt of pain up his left leg. It added to the stab on his side when he breathed. He would carry on. He wouldn’t let these peasants drag him like a piece of meat. He would walk tall like the prince he was.

Why couldn’t they have left him in the snow? He’d been happy there. After getting caught in the snare, the leg had soon stopped hurting. He’d been freezing at first, half-buried in snow. Then the cold was gone and he was left simply numb and tired. So tired, he’d fallen asleep and dreamed of his mother. Everything was better in his dreams.

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. Got to keep the rhythm, got to keep awake.

Where were they even taking him? Their city? Everything around him was white. The icy landscape stretched for miles and it looked all the same to him. How could they even find a city in that frozen desert?

All he wanted to do was fall on his knees and rest. He wanted to go back to sleep, back to his dreams, back to his memories. But he couldn’t. Right now, he had to find a way to escape. Later, he’d have a mission to accomplish.

His hands were tied with a simple rope. Was that what they used for their prisoners? No wonder the Southern Water Tribe had never stood a chance against the Fire Nation. Its northern sister would soon follow. Even a mediocre firebender would be able to burn through that and get free. But not Zuko.

_ Remember your breath of fire. It could save your life out there! _ Uncle had been right. His breath of fire had kept him alive for the last few days. But the cold was relentless and it had taken over Zuko’s body. Now his inner fire was almost gone, barely more than cinders. He couldn’t even burn the ropes that bound him.

Maybe something good would come out of this. His small boat had landed too far up the coast. He’d gotten lost trying to cross the snow plain. He’d been living off the prey caught by the Water Tribe snares and fighting the cold. Now his enemies were taking him exactly where he wanted to go from the beginning.

He guessed they were taking him to their chief, to the palace. The Avatar was surely a guest of honour, so he’d be hosted there. Zuko just had to get away from the two warriors and find him.

His original plan had failed. Sneak inside the Northern Water Tribe city walls. Grab the Avatar quietly. Get him on the boat and take him back to the ship where Uncle would be waiting for him. It had gone to shit from point one, but he’d kept trying to find a way. He couldn’t just give up. Now he had a chance to get back on track.

Part of him knew it was impossible. His leg was wounded and he still hadn’t recovered from the pirates’ attack. He’d lost his bending. He was hungry and tired and cold. It would take a lot more than what he had to catch the Avatar.

But he  _ could not _ accept that. If he didn’t capture the Avatar now, Zhao would when he invaded with his fleet. Zuko would lose his chance to redeem himself. He’d lose his chance to get back his honour, his country, his throne. He’d lose his chance to go back home, to his father. He  _ would not _ let that happen.

Something in the distance caught his attention. The white expanse was turning into darkness. It was the edge of a cliff and it was so massive it encompassed the horizon entirely. He couldn’t see beyond or into it. It must’ve been where they hid their city.

Details came slowly into view. He first noticed waterfalls inside the wall. Then he saw the city itself. Everything was made of ice. The houses, the streets, the structures, everything was white-blue, crisscrossed with water canals. The architecture was impressive. Sunlight glinted on every surface, revealing a stunning beauty he had never expected to find in the North Pole.

The buffalo yaks slowed down as they approached the edge but didn’t seem scared of the imminent fall. The watertribesmen steered them to the left, where the edge of the cliff gave way to large, wide steps the animals could go down.

Zuko tried to take it all in. The city was huge and knowing as much as possible of its layout would be vital for his escape. He looked for the largest, most magnificent building and planned routes that led out of the city.

There was no way out. The city was nested at the bottom of the ice cliffs from which it had been built. Massive ice walls interspaced with moats defended the coast. It was near impregnable. He now understood how it had resisted for the last hundred years. But not for long.

He weighed his options. Stealing a boat was off the table as he would never be able to get past the wall. Climbing the wall or melting just enough to get him and the Avatar through wasn’t a possibility either, not in his current condition, not without his firebending, not without a way to cross the sea back to his ship. His only alternative was going back the way he’d come, through the snowfields to where he’d left his boat. If it was still there.

The stairs ended behind the stables. The men dismounted and stepped away to where Zuko couldn’t hear what they said in their hushed tones. They didn’t take their eyes off him. Then one of them left and the other led the animals inside, with Zuko in tow.

It was the man he had hit. The hair on one side of his head was sticky with blood and wet with snow. He kept glancing at Zuko with anger behind his deep blue eyes. The way he set his jaw was an expression Zuko knew well. The man obviously wanted to say something, to do something, and it took all his self-control not to. It was a feeling Zuko was familiar with.

As the man relieved the buffalo yaks of their saddles and scrubbed them down, the other one came back. But he wasn’t alone.

Three men followed him. Two of them carried spears in one hand and whale-bone clubs on their backs. Both seemed middle-aged and one wore the same ridiculous hair as the Avatar’s friend. The third man was older. The top of his head was bald, but he wore his remaining white hair long, just like Uncle. He was unarmed, but his presence screamed of confidence and power. A waterbender.

“You’ve done a good job. We’ll take it from here,” he said, as the two soldiers grabbed Zuko’s arms. “Go home and not a word of this to anyone. You’ll be rewarded for your catch.”

Zuko fought against the men’s grip. “Who do you think you’re calling a catch!”

“Careful, boy. You’re a long way from home,” the old man said. His eyes hardened. “This is the North Pole, and not everyone survives here.”

The men pulled Zuko inside a tunnel from where water flowed to the canals. The splash of their feet echoed on the walls. After his eyes adjusted to the half-light of inside the tunnel, he saw the openings of others. The men led him through the turns of the maze. He guessed they were trying to disorient him, but he memorized every step.

Without any indication, the three men stopped at the same time and Zuko stumbled. The waterbender raised his arms to the ceiling and swayed them in a circle. The ice above them opened. He pointed his hands down and pulled them up. The water under their feet turned to ice and rose, pushing them up.

They were in a wide, empty hallway. The tall walls were decorated with intricate designs that converged on the ceiling. A younger Zuko would’ve been tempted to touch them, to stay behind studying them. He hoped they wouldn’t get destroyed during the invasion.

There was no doubt they were in the palace. Certainly, one of the corridors they passed by led, somehow, to the Avatar.

At the next intersection, Zuko pretended to faint. The men let go of him. Zuko kicked one of them with his good leg and got up in a sprint. Ice encased his feet, making him fall sprawled on the floor. The impact jostled his entire body and he felt his broken ribs cutting into him.

The waterbender approached in slow, measured steps. He grabbed Zuko’s topknot and forced him up.

“You’re treading on thin ice, boy. You might just drown.”

Zuko pulled away. The waterbender released his hair as the ice around his feet melted. His momentum carried him forward and he fell again.

One of the warriors yanked him back up. He grabbed Zuko’s arm with one hand and held a knife to his throat with the other. The man forced Zuko to walk in front of him, the blade always touching his skin.

It didn’t take long before they stopped again. A pair of soldiers guarded two large doors forming the waterbending symbol of three waves encased in a circle between them. The chains of intertwined spirals that adorned the ice seemed to shift and move in the light. Above it all presided a crescent moon.

Some things were the same across the world, whether in the Fire Nation or the Northern Water Tribe. This was the throne room. Zuko braced himself. In his experience, throne rooms were a bad sign.

At a gesture from the waterbender, the doors opened. Alarm bells screamed in Zuko’s head. All he wanted to do was run out of there, but the watertribesmen pushed him forward and the guards followed behind.

The room was enormous but empty. At the end stood a man on a raised dais, accompanied by others below. Four tall columns supported an elaborate pediment decorated with complex sculptures. Behind it was a waterfall that surrounded the men with mist.

They looked at him with cold eyes and faces of steel. Most of them were around Uncle’s age or older. The chief was one of the youngest, no more than fifty. He wore part of his hair tied up and blue ornaments on the loose strands. Around his white fur collar was a necklace made of fangs and a bone-carved crescent moon.

The waterbender and the warriors bowed before the chief. When Zuko didn’t move, the man holding him kicked his knees from under him.

“Kneel before Chief Arnook,” he growled.

Zuko tried to get up again, but the man pushed him down by the shoulders.

The chief stepped down and stared Zuko in the eyes.

“The spirits haven’t smiled upon you lately,” he said kindly, his eyes going over Zuko’s bruises, his injured leg, his scar. “We can keep you fed and warm, here, and give you a place to rest.”

_ Sure you can. But you won’t _ . He was Fire Nation. He could expect no hospitality from these northern peasants. Liars.

The silence stretched before Chief Arnook spoke again. “What’s your name, boy?”

“None of your business,” Zuko spat.

Someone cuffed him hard on the back of the head.

“You will show some respect!”

_ You will learn respect _ . Zuko flinched.

“You’ll be treated well here, I assure you that. Just cooperate and answer our questions,” the chief said in a stern but still gentle tone.

Zuko lunged, trying to get up once again, but the warrior held him back easily.

“I’m not a traitor!” he shouted.

He had lost his honour, not his loyalty. It didn’t matter what they asked him, what they promised him, what they did to him. He would never betray his country.

Chief Arnook took a deep breath. “Don’t make this harder on yourself.”

“Fuck you!”

The chief sighed. He looked at his men and nodded. “Search him for weapons.”

Two men held him down while two others pulled at his clothes, cutting when they couldn’t take them off. He tried to fight them, flailing wildly. The men ripped away his every layer. They left him naked on the cold floor with only the tight bandages around his chest.

How dare they?! Fire stirred inside him, but a puff of smoke through his nose was all there was left. How pathetic.

His entire body was trembling. He’d thought he’d felt cold before, but it had been nothing compared to this. His teeth chattered so loudly it made his head hurt. His body was stiff and he was shaking so hard, he couldn’t even stand up.

Chief Arnook looked down at him. Zuko matched the gaze with as much hatred as he could muster.

“One last thing,” the chief said, with an outstretched hand, as one of the guards gave him a knife. The chief grabbed Zuko’s topknot and cut it off, dropping it to the floor.

Zuko stared at his black hair. It was gone. Just like his chance to capture the Avatar. Just like his chance to regain his honour. It was  _ gone _ . There was no hope. He could never go home. There was nothing left for him. He’d lost everything.

_ I’m sorry, Uncle _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: leg injury, forced removal of clothing, forced haircut, hypothermia.


	3. Kids among Adults

“Princess Yue, may I ask… Damn!” With a frustrated sigh, Sokka cut himself short mid-sentence for probably the tenth time.

He was good at developing fool-proof plans. After all, that was what he was known for in their ragtag gang and even his own tribe. He was even better at coming up with multiple back-up plans, in case the original failed. But now, for the first time, he found himself in a situation where he had only one shot. Only one opportunity to get it right. If he failed, there would be no way to live down the embarrassment that was certain to follow.

Back at Kyoshi Island, he’d had the impression that he had not failed completely with his advances to flirt with Suki. At least, after she’d successfully and rather painfully thrown him off his high polar bear.

Still, this seemed to be a totally different league. Yue was, after all, the Princess and heiress of the whole Northern Water Tribe. And even if Sokka would never admit it out loud, the sheer magnitude and majesty of this place had put a gigantic shadow on his inner  –  until recently very glamorous  – image of his home in the far South.

With a heavy sigh, he pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against for the past few minutes and walked down the corridor that led to the high outer wall. Maybe it would be better to not start outright by asking her out. Maybe the best way to navigate would be to first start a seemingly superficial contact, under the pretext of being interested in the Northern Water Tribe and its politics. Yes, this could work. And then, when she got used to his presence and talking, then he’d steer the conversation towards more private topics until he could ask her out. By the time Sokka reached the corridor’s end, he was smiling and silently congratulating his brain for working again and coming up with the ultimate – that was when he stepped out of the icy palace and onto the wall.

In front of him was, once again, laid out the widespread glimmering city of the Northern Water Tribe. He was nothing here. Here he was not the best warrior, not the oldest, not the strongest (bending didn’t count!), not the manliest, not the… Whom was he kidding? He was nobody here. He stepped up to the edge of the wall, crossed his arms on the ledge and let his head rest heavily upon them while still gazing over the glittering ice buildings that lay beneath him. This was a disaster. Katara would get to learn and maybe even master waterbending, as would Aang since he was the Avatar and this was more or less his destiny and all… 

”Argh!” Now he was even starting to think of destiny. Aunt Woo must have hypnotised him when he had been too distracted by the volcano and the impending doom.

“What has crawled into your sleeping bag tonight?” 

Sokka did not yelp like a little girl  – he did not. He simply demonstrated his warrior skills in fast and elegant spinning around and facing an intruder. Even if this intruder was his little sister and the move was anything but elegant. That was not the point.

He quickly straightened up and let himself fall back against the wall in a hopefully very casual pose. But Katara’s face showed very clearly that she was not fooled in the slightest. 

“Well?” 

“What? Why should there have been anything in my sleeping bag when I am here, guarding the city and standing watch? All I am doing is to help…” But he couldn’t even fool himself, let alone his sister. 

“Oh Sokka, please! You have been weird since this morning, stomping around, grumbling under your breath, then grinning stupidly the next moment and being all happy. You are driving me nuts! What is going on? We are finally here, we made it to the North Pole, which had been unthinkable a few months ago. But it seems that you can’t even enjoy that…”

“That’s exactly the problem!” 

Taken aback by his sudden outburst, Katara halted mid-step and stared at Sokka, confusion rounding her eyes. Alright, that probably had not made a lot of sense to her. With another frustrated sigh, Sokka slid down the wall until his thick parka hit the snowy ground. He did not look at Katara when she joined him. 

“Explain,” she said.  _ I am here, I am listening _ said her tone.

“It’s just that…” How could he possibly describe what it was that bothered him that much? He was not even sure about it himself. “We are just so small.” 

Out of all reactions, he did not expect Katara to start laughing. 

“Sokka, we are teenagers. We haven’t been around fully-grown adults in ages. Of course, we are smaller. That will change, you will see. Gran-Gran always says…“

“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, all of us, the whole Southern Water Tribe is just so  – small.” There went his conviction of never letting a living soul in on his inner betrayal of his hometown.

Immediately, Katara seemed to sober up. “Are you saying we are insignificant? Because they are so much bigger than us? Because their city is so…”

“Yeah, exactly.” Sokka dared to peek to his left, just in time to catch Katara worrying her lips with her teeth, seemingly unsure of what to say. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Not exactly. I mean, we knew that there’d be powerful waterbenders up here, of course they would be able to build magnificent architecture easily. But I…I talked to Master Pakku today. You know, the tribe’s highest waterbending master? He won’t train me.”

“What? Well, he probably wants you to first practise with the not-so-high masters and when you kicked all their asses, then he’ll…”

“Because I am a woman.” Now Katara’s voice was tight and low with rage.

“He won’t train you because you are a woman? So, they have female trainers for women here? Well, what’s the problem with that?”

“No, Sokka! You don’t understand! They don’t let women bend here at all! All we are supposed to do and study is to heal! They want me to sit in that stupid hut all day long, learning about this and bones and healing water, while Aang gets to learn combat bending! It’s not fair. That was my goal here. My reason to come here. He was supposed to learn from…” With a gasp, she clapped a hand over her mouth, shocked at what she’d admitted out loud.

Now it was Sokka’s turn to raise an eyebrow at his sister. 

“You are jealous of Aang? Because you wanted to be his teacher? Katara, you already are his teacher! He adores you! Tui and La, I can’t believe I just said that.” He dropped his arm over his face in a dramatic gesture. “Look at the sacrifices I make for your sake.” 

That had Katara finally cracking a smile again.

Encouraged, he pressed on. “And anyway, you are a natural! You probably don’t even need that Pakku guy. You’ll simply figure it out all by yourself. And, on top of that, you get to learn healing, which Aang does not. And we are at war, after all, heading straight into it. You will be needed there… I mean…” 

There went the fragile good mood he had created. He felt Katara sink against his shoulder.

“I know, Sokka. I know. It’s just that it has always been my dream to find a master to train me. To become a real waterbending master. But I guess you are right. I should not put my own needs over those of the world. I will stay down and do what they want.” 

That had Sokka whip his head around to make sure it was still his sister uttering silent words at his side, not some frightened little girl.

“What! No! That is absolutely not what I meant. You are supposed to do the exact opposite! Show them that you do not need them! You can learn healing and combat bending all by yourself and even better than Aang, without a master. We came all the way up here, by ourselves, without any masters or adults. Whatever we want to achieve, we can do it! So, don’t let yourself be stopped by an old, sexist scumbag who thinks he’s better than you!”

“You are right!” Finally, Katara’s fighting spirit seemed to have come back, as she jumped up, grabbing his arm and hurling him up with a strong tug. “So, whatever has you down all day, go and do something about it.” With that, she ran down the wall.

“Wait, where are you going, Katara?”

“I am getting myself a waterbending master!”

She was right. He would never have a chance if he did not at least try.

Straightening up and squaring his shoulders with renewed resolution, he walked back into the palace's maze to look for Yue.

It did not take him long to find her. In fact, he almost bumped into her. Unfortunately, instead he bumped into Hahn, who was currently standing at Yue’s side  – very closely. Way too closely.

“Ah sorry, hi. Not to you, to you.” He pointed at Yue, then, remembering his earlier internal dilemma, swiftly gave a bow. “Princess Yue, I mean.” 

The giggle he was rewarded with would brighten his every dream from now on, he was sure. 

“Hello, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. How can I help you?”

“Ahm…” 

Nervously he glanced at Hahn, then back to Yue. Would it be too daring to ask her within this guy’s earshot? But this question was answered quickly when another voice interrupted his half-baked answer.

“Sokka, may I talk to you for a minute?” 

Even though chief Arnook’s face resembled the princesses’ fine features, his booming voice was nothing like her sweet, floating words. No, he demanded respect by the sheer strength of talking. Sokka would have to wait to speak to Yue alone, but the murderous glances Hahn gave him as Sokka followed the chief towards some steep stairs, as well as the encouraging ones from the Princess herself, made that fact very bearable.

“What is it I can assist you with, ahem, Chief?”

Arnook shot him a concentrated look over his shoulder. 

“Today, some of our scouts found a firebender while hunting. And since you are the man who knows more about the Fire Nation than anyone here on the North Pole, I would appreciate your opinion on this.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in, as Sokka’s mind had gotten momentarily stuck at the fact that the Chief asked him not only for a private word but for his assistance and opinion. He would totally win over Princess Yue with this. Then the rest of the sentence registered, and he stopped short.

“A firebender? How? What? Will there be an attack? How big is their platoon?”

“We don’t know, but, as it seems, he came alone. He was found wounded and half-frozen to death. Even though the war has never touched the Northern Water Tribe’s walls, this boy was very close to our city and something about his behaviour puzzles me. I just want you to take a look at him, maybe you can come up with an idea why he’s out here, if the Fire Nation is maybe following some strategy with this.”

They had reached a high metal door at the end of the staircase by now, its edges glittering with ice where the walls took over. The Chief spoke some short words at the door and, not a moment later, it swung open. Sokka followed Arnook through the icy portal, already mulling over various battle tactics he knew to be used by the Fire Nation.

“There would be…” 

Just as he readied himself to present the most likely ones, he looked beyond Arnook and the guard who had opened the door for them. In that exact moment, the ashen coloured figure that cowered at the other wall lifted his head.

“Prince Zuko!”


	4. Student and Master

After the long weeks away, travelling across the world, the North Pole was supposed to be like home. No, better than home. The Northern Water Tribe hadn’t been touched by the war, so it should be like the South Pole had been before the Fire Nation attacked. Katara had hoped to find her stolen roots here, as well as a waterbending master.

But these weren’t her roots and the waterbending master refused to train her.

When they had first arrived, the glittering city had awed the three of them, Katara most of all. It was the height of waterbending, its foundation and beating heart. It was huge and beautiful, so full of life. It was nothing like home.

The Southern Water Tribe was small and warm and cosy. Everyone knew each other and everyone helped each other. They were few, but they were close. Her tribe was her family.

Here she was the Avatar’s friend, an esteemed guest. There was etiquette to live up to and rules to follow. Stupid rules like women not being allowed to waterbend except for healing.

No wonder Gran Gran had left. Katara was still trying to wrap her head around what Yugoda had told her this morning. Gran-Gran had never said anything about it. They didn’t even know she was from the Northern Water Tribe, much less that she’d been engaged to anyone but Grandpa. She’d chosen to run away rather than bow to her tribe’s restrictive rules. Katara wouldn’t bow either.

She was grateful for her healing abilities. They had been useful more than once and would come in handy again, especially now that she was learning how to use them properly. But not using her bending to fight was a waste of its potential. It was like locking away a part of herself. It made her feel trapped.

She almost stayed quiet, though. Aang needed a waterbending master and the world needed Aang to master all four elements. When they spoke to Master Pakku and he told her no, she had argued, but she’d relented in the end. She could always find another way. She’d spent her entire life being her own teacher and she could keep doing it.

However, weird as it was to admit, Sokka was right. She was good. She was better than any of the boys she’d seen practising when she’d talked to Master Pakku. And she’d learned it all on her own. It was time she had a proper teacher for once.

Katara climbed the stairs fueled by anger and spite.  _ Who does he think he is? _ She’d show him, she’d show all of them, what she was capable of. They would see what a woman could do. She would demand what she deserved: respect and the right to learn.

Master Pakku and his students were training in front of a waterfall. Aang was among them, struggling with a waterbending move she didn’t know and looking miserable. He never looked miserable when  _ she _ was teaching him.

“Master Pakku!” she called.

The old man turned and smirked at her. “What are you doing here, little girl?”

“I didn’t travel across the entire world so you could tell me no. I wanna learn how to fight and you’re gonna teach me!”

There was a loud splash as all the students stopped to stare wide-eyed at her. A long silence followed.

Master Pakku laughed. “War is not for women. You don’t have the stomach to do what needs to be done. You’re too soft.”

Fury rose inside Katara. How dare he tell her she wasn’t strong enough for war? She stepped forward, each step a crack in the ice all around her.

“What do you know of war? You have been hiding behind your wall for a hundred years while your sister-tribe was almost destroyed. You don’t know what the war has put me through. I have fought in the war. I’ve seen the destruction and suffering it has caused. I’ve been living it since the day I was born. What have  _ you _ done?”

“Know your place, girl!” His voice was made of ice and wrath, all mockery gone. “You have a lot to learn before you get to question me.”

“Prove it. Fight me!”

He scoffed and turned his back on her, glaring at his students. The boys immediately resumed what they were doing.

Aang came up to her.

“Katara, you don’t mean that. He’s a waterbending master. You can’t w–” He didn’t dare finish the sentence.

“I know.” She raised her hands and pulled the water from a boy’s grasp, turning it into a whip. With a flick of her wrist, it hit the back of Master Pakku’s head. “Aren’t you man enough to fight me?”

“Fine! You want to learn to fight so bad? Study closely.”

The old man took the water from two nearby pools and hurled it at Katara. She landed on her feet, but the water now encircled the two of them.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you,” he taunted.

Katara pushed the water away and it hit one of the students. As she ran towards Pakku, he raised a frozen wave. She ran up the ice and landed on the stairs, the steps turning into a ramp under her feet as she slid down. The wave turned to water, rushing towards her from up above. Katara froze her feet and broke the wave.

“You can’t knock me down!”

She tugged at the ice under Pakku, forcing him to glide down. She met him with a shower of blows, but he deflected them easily. He pulled water from the ground and it threw her back to the foot of the stairs.

Katara got up, breathing heavily. She took what was left of the steps, shooting ice sheets at Pakku. He broke them all.

“You’re an excellent waterbender.”

“But you still won’t teach me!”

She ran to him again, pushing a torrent in front of her. Pakku turned it on her. She fell on her side with a groan and struggled to get up.

A pillar of water rose from the ice. It turned to ice shards that fell all around her. She couldn’t move and she couldn’t bend.

Master Pakku started to walk away.

“This fight is over.”

“Come back here! I’m not finished yet!”

“Yes, you are.”

She fought against the ice. There had to be a way she could get out. She couldn’t lose like that. It couldn’t be all for nothing.

The old man stopped and picked something from the ground. Her mother’s necklace.

“This is my necklace.”

“No, it’s not! It’s mine! Give it back!”

What was he gonna do with it? Use it against her as Zuko had? She couldn’t lose it again.

“I made this sixty years ago.” Only now did Katara notice the longing in his voice. “For the love of my life. For Kanna.”

The ice melted around Katara.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Him?

“My Gran-Gran was supposed to marry  _ you _ ?”

“I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged,” he replied, clutching it close to his chest. “I thought we would have a long, happy life together. I loved her.”

He sounded so sad. Katara couldn’t help but feel sorry for him despite everything.

“But she didn’t love you, did she? It was an arranged marriage. Gran-Gran wouldn’t let your tribe’s stupid customs run her life. That’s why she left. It must’ve taken a lot of courage.”

The old man turned to Katara and handed her the necklace. He was just that, an old man, bitter and lonely.

“Yes, and she passed that courage on to you. I lost Kanna to the demands of our traditions. It would be a shame to lose such a brilliant student as well.”


	5. A Father and a Warrior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

“With a grim expression on his face, the pirate captain took one last look at his sinking treasure chests, before calling out to his crew.” With some effort, Nuka tried to lower his voice to a scratchy rough tone. “They will pay for this! Bring all my parrots, they will  _ pay _ for this!”

His youngest daughter started to squirm in his lap, giggling.

“But they are pirates too, the guys who took his treasure away. Pirates don’t pay, dad, they steal! We have learnt that in reading classes last week. How does the Captain not know that?”

For a moment, his six-year-old left Nuka speechless.

“Well, you know, little polar bear, when people do something very bad, the only way to pay for it is to have the same thing being done to them.”

Instead of letting him finish the story, his daughter now turned around to face him properly, her big eyes confused.

”But, then why did you not let me punch Annat when he punched me last week?”

_ Oh, dear Tui and La _ . Maybe she was, after all, too young for violent stories. His wife would throw a fit if she ever heard about this conversation.

“That is because your brother is not a bad person. He might have done something very rude and stupid, but he is not bad. You understand that, right?”

Her eyes finally sliding shut from tiredness, his daughter nodded half-heartedly.

“Yeah, I understand why he does not have to pay. Annat, I mean. So, only the pirate pays because he is bad.“

As Nuka sat on the warm blankets, his daughter falling asleep in his arms  – in safety  – his thoughts wandered into an icy cell.

He awoke to a throbbing head  – Yugoda had warned him about that  – and an even more throbbing pain in his lower back from falling asleep in a half-sitting position. Sucking in a deep breath and holding it for a few seconds, he gently lifted his sleeping daughter from his lap, placing her under warm blankets, before standing up with a held back groan.

While tiptoeing through the pitch-black room he made a mental list of all the things he’d have to do during the next day. Or was it even the next day? How long had he been asleep? With his past days’ luck, he’d have barely an hour left before he’d have to get up anyway.

After gingerly closing the door behind him, he finally stretched, his back and arms cracking, and let out a loud yawn. Only then did he notice the faint light that filtered through the closed curtains. No flickering torchlight, but the unmoving bluish light of the rising sun.

Nuka decided there would be no point in going to bed again. Instead, he quickly washed himself and changed into new clothes before he headed out for the palace.

Chief Arnook hadn’t given him any details on when he should be at the palace today  – only that his presence would be requested for the next step concerning their newest  _ guest _ .

Somehow, the prospect of dealing with  _ this  _ guest was much less frustrating than having to deal with the Avatar or any of his companions. This, he would of course never admit out loud. But the little in-person contact he’d had over the past few days and with what had transpired the day before at the training grounds, Nuka was not ashamed to admit that he was looking forward to channeling his frustrations on a guest on whom it would be welcomed by the Chief  – or anybody, for that matter.

The few times he’d met the Avatar or one of his companions, they’d always acted as if it was no big deal, as if having the  _ Avatar _ intruding into their secluded and  _ safe  _ fortress was just a learning visit and no world-changing event. And the chief acted the same way.

Yes, to say Nuka was frustrated and fed up with what was happening and what was  _ not  _ happening around him would be putting it lightly.

While he understood that the reappearance of the Avatar was an important and magnificent event, he struggled to accept how it seemed to be enough for all of his tribe’s traditions that had been held onto over the past hundred years to suddenly be twisted and discarded as if they were meaningless. Having Master Pakku accept a girl as a student for once  – well, that could always be an exception, a one-time thing, she was his lost love's grand-daughter after all.

But for discussions about actively joining the war-forces of their sister tribe to arise, these were boundaries that had never before been touched. Nuka would certainly call himself a very loyal man. But if it came down to it and the two were no longer one and the same, he was loyal to his tribe, not its chief.

As if summoned by those thoughts, Chief Arnook appeared in the main gate of the palace where Nuka was heading. The morning sun sent its bright rays at the powerful man, letting him glow, making him almost invisible against the white corridor he had stepped out from.

Nuka hurried to take the last few steps between them, bowing his head in a short yet formal and respectful greeting.

“Good morning, Tribesman Nuka. I hope you are doing well and your head has not taken any serious injuries from yesterday’s events?”

As if to prove his point, Nuka shook his head. “Thank you, Chief Arnook, but the most damage that came from yesterday was caused by me falling asleep crouched on my child’s bed.”

Arnook let out a wistful sigh “Ah yes, the children. Enjoy them being young, Nuka, they’ll be adults faster than you think. But revelling in nostalgia is not why I called for you. I have a mission for you.”

It couldn’t be more than ten minutes later that Arnook led him down the final steps to the prisoner’s cell, but Nuka felt as if he’d had weeks’ worth of information and knowledge punched into his head. He still felt slightly dizzy from the rush of adrenaline and pure revelation he’d felt when Arnook had told him that the Fire Nation man he had found the day before was not only a very active and important figure in the war, no, he also happened to be the fucking  _ prince _ . The spawn of Fire Lord Ozai himself.

His hands were shaking as he laid them against the metal door that would reveal the Fire Prince once pushed open.

In his blind excitement, Nuka startled wildly when suddenly a heavy hand fell on his shoulder  – not to hold him back though, but to push him forward. 

“Remember what I told you, Nuka. Good luck.” With these words, Chief Arnook closed the door between them.

With a deep breath, Nuka turned around to properly meet their newest guest of honour. And while he already had an idea of what would await him, he still couldn’t quite suppress the falter in his first step towards the Prince, nor the quiet gasp that escaped him upon seeing those flaming eyes again.

Unfortunately, one of the guards standing by the door frame must have noticed too, because he laughed at him.

“What are you afraid of? Scared he’ll  _ snarl  _ fire at you? Ahahah… because that’s seemingly the only thing he’s been capable of doing for the past hours.”

Nuka already knew as much from what Chief Arnook had told him on their way down here. It was, after all, the reason he was here in the first place.

“Afraid of  _ this _ brat? You may wait outside. You deserve a break after having to stare at that ugly face for so long.”

Nuka knew he had to give the Prince the impression of any potential aid being gone; of him being on Nuka’s mercy alone.

The moment the door fell shut, Nuka clapped his hands together.

Whether to underline his strength or hide their shaking, he wouldn’t admit.

Nuka’s back was tense, the muscles of his arms ready to strike and defend. Logically he knew that the Fire Prince was securely bound, powerless, with traces of frostbite on his exposed skin, and obviously focusing all his concentration on  _ not shivering in front of his enemies _ .

But that did not change the fact that Nuka  _ knew _ that he was standing in front of the heir of the Fire Lord himself. Or… would-be-heir, to be precise.

Unfortunately, while the boy of their southern sister tribe had helped them greatly by announcing their prisoner’s identity, he had not been able to give a lot of valuable information about their prisoner otherwise.

“Good morning, your  _ Highness _ . Do you remember who I am?”

For the first time, the Prince looked directly at him, before saying with a raspy voice:

“I don’t care to know some peasant’s name.”

Alright, this brat wanted to play  _ high and mighty _ then? Nuka would get him down to earth soon enough.

“Really? Then I will give you some help.”

Nuka had meant to strike the top of the Prince’s head, an eye for an eye, one might say. But just when his fist shot forward, the boy lifted his head in arrogance and defiance, leading to the blow landing with a  _ crack _ on the firebender’s nose instead.

For a moment, they both stared at each other in utter surprise.

And while Nuka wasn’t particularly surprised by the raging scream of  _ fuck you  _ that was spit at him, he sure as Koh was by the flames that accompanied it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: beating


	6. Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

His cell was made of ice, just like everything else in this forsaken place. It was small and bleak, empty but for the worn-down blanket that he sat on. He was so cold, colder than before, colder than he’d ever been.

Crossing the snowfields, the cold had pushed itself through his layers slowly. The guards had ripped those layers away to nothing. They’d given him clothes  – Water Tribe clothes  – but it wasn’t enough. Outside, the harsh winds came biting at any exposed skin before disappearing again, while here the cold was ever-present, devouring everything in him, little by little. He’d had his fire to fight back the cold then, but now that fire was almost dead and so was he.

Zuko didn’t want to die. Life hadn’t been kind to him, but he didn’t want to give up on it. He would capture the Avatar and restore his honour so he could finally go home. Yet, he could feel death’s cold fingers grabbing at him. The enemy was the only way out, but he wouldn’t take it. If he died protecting his nation’s secrets, so be it. He wasn’t glad to do it, but he was fine with it. There was  _ some _ honour in that death.

His body kept shivering, no matter how hard he tried to make it stop. His teeth chattered so loudly that he couldn’t hear himself think. His stomach ached for a decent meal. He’d kill for some food.

When was the last time he’d eaten? How long had he been here? Hours? Days? More?

He tried to remember but he couldn’t think straight. The cold was so deep inside him. It was like walking through snow. 

Yes, he’d been walking through snow. Then he was kneeling before the chief and Zuko had no idea how that had happened. Had they brought him there? The men had taken his clothes and cut his hair, he remembered that but not how he’d gotten to the cell.

A man had come and asked him questions. So many questions. Too many questions. Zuko couldn’t tell what they were. He didn’t even remember what he’d said. He only knew that he hadn’t betrayed his nation. If nothing else, he’d cling to the last shreds of his honour. Or he hoped he’d had.

Breathing hurt, a stab on the side with every breath. The man had broken his ribs. Perhaps he hadn’t liked Zuko’s answers.

It was cold. So, so cold.

Zuko breathed into his own blueish fingers. Nothing but a few wisps of smoke. He ran his hands on his face and found blood there.

Right. The man had broken his nose too, but that didn’t hurt. The cold made it numb. The cold made everything numb, even his mind. It was like trying to see through fog.

His memory was so fuzzy. What else was he missing? What else had the man done to him? What else was broken or hurt? Zuko wanted to check his body, but he didn’t dare lift his clothes. It was too cold. So cold. Always cold.

The metal door opened and a man in warrior’s clothes entered.

Zuko lurched to his feet with a hand against the ice wall. His leg threatened to give out under him. He willed it to stand the same way he forced the rest of his body to stay still with the few embers that remained inside him.

The man stared at him with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.

“What?!” Zuko asked.  _ What do you want now? What else are you gonna take from me? _

“Huh… I… I just came to… huh… check-in on you. So, how ya doin’?”

The man seemed familiar. Had Zuko seen him before? That voice woke something in his head, a memory just out of reach. Was he one of the guards? Or was he the one who’d beaten him? So many faces, he could be any of them. They were all starting to look the same, everything was such a blur.

“Do whatever you want,” he challenged. “I’m not answering your questions.”

He feared he already had. He wouldn’t betray the Fire Nation, but he didn’t remember what he’d said. What if he’d said something he shouldn’t? The uncertainty gnawed at him. There was nothing worse than being a traitor.

The man raised his hands and Zuko flinched. He straightened up.

“Calm down, dude. I’m not gonna hit you.”

_ You already have. _

Zuko’s leg faltered and he fell on it, screaming through gritted teeth.

The man ran to him and knelt by his side. He said something, but Zuko couldn’t hear it over the pain tearing his leg open.

He crawled back, hiding his wounded leg. He was shaking again. It was too cold, so cold. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. They would know he was weak.

The man grabbed his ankle and pulled the pant-leg up. The skin was red and swollen, and deep teeth-like marks smeared with blood circled the leg. Something yellowish and thick oozed from them. He grimaced.

“Shit! This looks really bad! What happened?”

Zuko tried to pull his leg away, but the man didn’t let go. He didn’t know what happened. When he tried to remember, nothing came to him but the cold. Had the other man done it?

“Don’t touch me!”

“What’s wrong with you?” the man accused, lifting his hands away. “I’m trying to help you here!”

“Leave me alone,” Zuko demanded, but his teeth chattered through the words. He curled in on himself, pulling every part of him together to keep the heat in and the cold out.

The man looked around the small cell and turned to Zuko again. “Where’s the rest of your clothes?” he mocked.

Azula’s taunts came to his mind. The one thing he didn’t miss about home.

Zuko pulled the edges of the blanket around him. Nothing could keep the cold away. It always managed to get to him. And he was so, so cold.

He didn’t bother to answer. He’d learnt long ago from his sister that what they wanted was an angry reply and that silence was the worst thing they could get.

The man placed a hand on his arm, exposed by the short-sleeved tunic. Zuko tried to dodge, but he was too late. The cold was slowing him down. Eventually, it would stop him.

“You’re freezing! Here,” the man offered, shrugging off his fur-lined parka, “put this on. I’ll go find you some clothes. And some shoes.”

Zuko stared at the coat for a long moment. It was Water Tribe work, sure to hold against the worst kind of weather. All he wanted was to get inside it and drive out the cold in him. He pushed it away.

“I don’t want anything from you!”

“Now you’re just being a stupid, proud jerk! Just take the damn thing before you freeze to death!”

“I’m not falling for your tricks.”

The man spoke, but Zuko couldn’t make himself pay attention. The edges of his senses were getting muddy. The man shoved the parka towards Zuko again. “... so take it.”

It was getting harder to refuse, but he couldn’t accept it. They would just use it against him. Punish him for saying yes. Demand something in return. Take it away later and make everything so much worse. 

“Fuck off.”

“That’s it! You can die here for all I care! One less firebender to worry about!”

The man stormed off, leaving his coat behind on the floor. He stopped halfway to the door. He stood there shifting from foot to foot and waving his arms wildly. He was talking, probably to himself. Zuko didn’t care. The cold was dulling even that.

“Damn it, Gran-Gran! Why did you raise me to be this nice?” the man yelled suddenly, and he turned to Zuko. “Listen, dude, I’m not gonna hurt you, okay?”

Lies.  _ Azula always lies _ . His sister had used this trick on him too. She would act nice. All she wanted was to play with her big brother. It was a trap. She’d hit him, burn him and humiliate him in front of her friends, their tutors, their father.

Mother had always tried to get Zuko and Azula to get along. She was gone now. Father chastised him for being so weak that his little sister could beat him. So Zuko worked hard and practised and learnt. He’d show Father he wasn’t weak anymore. Father would never be disappointed in him again.

When he left, it felt like a part of him was being torn from him. He missed the hot food that set his tongue on fire. He missed the crimson brick houses. He missed the music and the fire shows. He missed the breathtaking views from the tops of the old volcanoes. He missed its sunrises and its sunsets. And he really missed its warmth. It was so cold now.

Something snapped next to him and his head jerked up. The man was talking, but Zuko couldn’t focus enough to understand the words. It was like he was talking from another room. Maybe he was asking him about the troop movements again. He didn’t remember the questions, but he remembered they wanted details about the war.

“I’ve already told you! I’m not telling you about the war plans!” he said, bracing himself for the blow.

It didn’t come.

The man’s brow was furrowed and he was speaking again. Zuko tried to listen through the cold in his head.

“... not good, so not good. Dude, do you know who I am?” The man stared at Zuko, searching his face. “You’re probably not even listening anyway.”

Zuko blinked as if it would clear his head, which it didn’t. He looked at the man and tried to remember. Did he recognize him? Something told him he’d seen the man before, but he couldn’t be sure.

He just shook his head and kept it down. He’d been hit for answering no to that question before, that he knew.

The man crouched beside him and stared at him.

“What’s your name?”

“Zuko, Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne.” The words tumbled out of his mouth before an alarm in his head could warn him not to answer. It was important, but he had no idea why anymore

The man sighed. “At least you know  _ your _ name. Just put on the parka, please, before your brain freezes for good.”

Zuko couldn’t keep saying no. He was so cold and the coat was so warm. He knew he shouldn’t take it, but the why was fading. The cold was all he had left.

His hands were shaking badly and the clink of metal followed them. He looked down to see them shackled together. It surprised him before he half-remembered someone closing the cuffs around his wrists. Why was he in chains? Something clicked: he was a prisoner.

“Oh, right, forgot about that,” the man said, his eyes going between the chains and the parka. “Let me help. Tuck your arms in.”

Zuko did as he was told. The man wrapped the coat around him and tied it closed over his arms. The sleeves hung uselessly at the sides. Half of Zuko was inside a warm cocoon and he could already feel the cold going away.

The rest of his body complained. He bent his knees, pulling them inside the parka as much as he could, and he buried his face inside the collar. The man pulled the hood over his bare head.

“Better?” he asked.

“Thank you,” Zuko managed to say. He’d stopped shivering and his voice was steady.

All he could think about was the blood running through his veins and warming up his body. Something stirred in the ashes of his inner fire. He would never take it for granted again now that he knew how easily it could be taken from him. Fire was energy and life. Cold was only death.

The man laid a hand on Zuko’s shoulder, startling him. He immediately drew it back.

“I’m coming back. I’ll bring you some food and a blanket or something. This,” he gestured vaguely at the cell and Zuko in it, “isn’t right.”

Zuko didn’t say anything. He was their prisoner. In war, people had to do bad things for good reasons. Like chasing a child across the world so they could go home.

A spark ignited in his head. He recognized the man in front of him. The boy.

He shuffled away. His back was against the ice wall. In front of him, his arms were trapped inside the warm parka. He glared at the boy.

“You’re the Avatar’s friend,” he growled.

The boy stepped back as if he’d been burned.

“Yeah, I am,” he said coldly. “I really shouldn’t be helping you, but…” he trailed off.

No, he shouldn’t. Zuko had attacked the boy’s village. He’d hunted him and his friends down all the way from the South Pole. He’d struck at every opportunity. Yet the boy was showing him kindness. It was definitely a trick, but he’d deal with the consequences later. For now, he needed something to hold on to. Anything.

He bowed his head a little. He would’ve closed his fist against his palm if he could. “Thank you,” he repeated. He meant it more than he’d thought.

“Huh, yeah, don’t mention it.” Zuko heard the sarcasm in the other boy’s words. “I’m gonna go now. I’m coming back with some food and some clothes. And I’m bringing my sister. She has healing powers, so she can help you with… well... everything.”

_ And undo your friend’s hard work? _ Zuko thought but didn’t say.

The boy finally left. Zuko huddled inside the warm parka. Now that he was warm, his tired body drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: hypothermia, confusion/disorientation, disordered eating


	7. The Polar Tiger-wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

Sokka remembered a wild polar tiger-wolf that had been wounded and caught near their village when he was a child. The polar tiger-wolf had only wandered that near  _ because  _ it was wounded and could no longer hunt for itself.

He clearly remembered the morbid curiosity that had befallen him. While he had known that the animal was still extremely dangerous, even when wounded, there was also this nagging urge to get a glimpse after he’d heard the adults talking about the horrid state the animal was in. And like most of the times during his childhood days, his curiosity had won.

Until this day, Sokka wished that it hadn’t, because while he had still never seen a polar tiger-wolf, he knew that what he’d laid his eyes on that day had merely been a rotting shadow of one.

It was with quite a similar feeling of anticipating curiosity that Sokka pushed open the cold metal door to the Prince’s cell.

When Sokka hurried out of that cell minutes later, his thoughts were racing. This was suddenly all too serious, too  _ big _ . One might think that escorting the Avatar around the world, helping him fulfil his destiny, was a serious task, but in the face of what Sokka had just seen in this damp room, even accompanying the world’s last hope seemed light and… not like this.

Sokka felt bad that he’d blamed his decision on his Gran-Gran for even a moment, as he was perfectly aware why he had given his parka to Prince Zuko. Like he had told the Prince before leaving him in his cell, the way he’d been treated just wasn’t  _ right _ .

He felt even worse for how he’d stepped into that cell again soon after his first departure, only to snatch back his parka from the prisoner  – and oh, he wished there would have been curses and insults and even flames, not that dead look and simple  _ acceptance  _ _ – _ because he could not risk somebody finding his parka slung around the imprisoned Fire Nation Prince. That was something he never wanted to have to explain to their hosts.

He walked until he could see the rays of sunlight filtering through the halls which were  _ not underground _ before he leant against the cold wall for a moment, took a deep breath and  _ thought _ . Because if Sokka could rightfully pride himself on something, then it was his mind, his plan-forging, analytical mind. Never mind that Katara could probably name at least ten incidents which would make him look like a total idiot. That was _ not the point now.  _ So, the goal. He had to make sure that Prince Zuko wouldn’t… wouldn’t what? He wouldn’t die, Sokka knew that. While he wasn’t in any way knowledgeable in the medical field, it was clear that Zuko was held and interrogated for information. He would be of no use dead. They would not let him die. On the other hand, they wouldn’t really care if the prince would lose some limbs during the process if the state his leg was in was any indicator. So, medical attention to those nasty looking wounds had priority.

And some warmer clothes.

Right, right. Those were what Sokka had just promised his enemy. Well, start with the easy things then.

With a nod to himself, Sokka stomped down the bright hallway radiating as much determination as he could.

He had almost made it to the supply rooms when the sweetest and at the same time  _ last _ voice he wanted to hear right now called out to him.

“Sokka, do you have a moment? I wanted to talk to you in private since we were interrupted earlier.”

Princess Yue had appeared behind him, stepping out of one of the many doors which led from the hallway Sokka had been hurrying down.

He decided to greet her with a small nod, hoping it would be polite enough while still lessening the distance decorum might put between them.

“Princess Yue. Ah, I am, unfortunately in quite a hurry right now. But I would love to talk to you. Maybe later?”

Argh, it being Yue he was talking to and the Fire Prince still at the back of his mind apparently really took a toll on his eloquence.

“Yes, of course. Is everything alright?”

Damn, there was no easy getting out of this for Sokka now. He didn’t want to lie to Yue, but he couldn’t tell her the truth either.

“Yes, yes, I am fine. I was just going to get some spare clothes from the supply room for all the outdoor training I am doing here, you know?”

He quickly pushed down the impulse to flex his arms to underline his statement. Didn’t want to give her any grounds on which she could compare him negatively with that Hahn-guy. Nope.

Just then, a different idea struck him.

“But you know, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to get your tribe’s official fighting clothes unnecessarily dirty or smelly, you don’t happen to know who I could ask for some old, unimportant clothes?”

For a moment, Yue seemed to be in deep thought, an expression which, Sokka noted, made her wrinkle her forehead in an adorable way.

Suddenly, her face brightened again, and she strode past Sokka through one of the doors on the left, calling to him over her shoulder:

“I have an idea. You should find exactly what you need in the pile of old discarded clothes, which are used as stuffing material.”

Sokka hurried to follow her, while he tried to decide whether it would be too weird if he used the opportunity to show off his fighting skills to the Princess, even if it was in rags, before bringing them to their real destination.

The clanking of the door closing behind them sobered him up quickly, reminding him forcefully of metal shackles around bruised wrists. He had no time, he had to hurry. Who knew for how long they’d leave the Prince alone?

The room they were standing in now was filled with ceiling-high shelves, each stuffed with various pieces of clothing. Some torn in several places, some seemingly in one piece if not for big stains smeared on them.

Sokka knew he couldn’t be picky – damn it, he shouldn’t _want_ to be picky deciding on clothes for _Prince Zuko_ – he still found himself picking up and placing down various trousers, coats and shoes before he was satisfied and turned around to leave with a bunch of clothes in his arms.

“Don’t you want to try them on before picking some?” Yue asked from where she was waiting in the doorway.

In his state of  _ I am committing and hiding a crime _ , Sokka’s brain failed to come up with an answer other than stammering for a moment.

With a gasp, Yue’s hand covered her mouth and… Sokka squinted for a moment, was she blushing?

“Tui and La, I am so sorry, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, I did not mean to imply… I did not mean anything. I will…“

Just then, it hit Sokka how exactly Yue thought he’d interpreted her words and felt his own face now heating up rapidly.

“Nah, don’t worry! It’s fine, it’s fine. I mean, it wouldn’t be fine, but I get what you mean, ah, I get what you  _ don’t  _ mean… yeah, I will just bring these to my room and see you later?!”

He was just glad that Yue seemed too embarrassed to care at the moment because he didn’t look at her again or give any sign of proper formal farewell before he dashed through the door and  _ away _ .

Only when he found himself standing in the open courtyard, did Sokka let himself take some deep, calming breaths.

The icy wind that blew through the wide field luckily helped to cool down his face and, with it, his racing thoughts. Ok, he would definitely have to find a solution to  _ this  _ problem later, but for now, he still had a plan to carry out.

Just as he wanted to go back inside, his target’s voice was carried around the corner.

“Aang, he is not saying that you are unfit or... or  _ weak _ . But I think Master Pakku might be right that you lack some more forceful determination?” 

The way Katara almost formulated her sentence as a question told Sokka how very much she did  _ not  _ want to tell Aang whatever she was telling him. And from what he had heard, they had tried to get Aang to do something violent.

Sokka decided to save Aang from his uncomfortable position, but Katara’s next words froze him before he fully rounded the corner.

“Just imagine it’s Zuko! You can’t tell me you’d hold back with him!?”

Oh, oh no. This… this was not good.

He had thought… he couldn’t even say what he had thought when he’d come up with this plan. That Katara would willingly help heal their arch enemy once she saw him being cold? Not  _ cold _ , Sokka corrected himself. But  _ freezing _ , blue and grey and shivering profoundly.

That she’d see his reason once she’d talked to him and realized that he wouldn’t talk back because he didn’t even  _ recognise  _ them?

That she’d have pity once she saw the proud Prince Zuko flinch like a puppy from a mere gentle touch?

Yes, when Sokka had stormed out of that cell, shaken from what he’d witnessed, that was exactly how his plan-Katara would react. And it was exactly how his sister Katara would most definitely  _ not  _ react. Damn it.

First things first, he’d bring these clothes down to the cell.

Turning around, he took a step towards the door he’d just come out when he suddenly spun around again with a loud yelp as  _ the ground carried him towards Aang and his sister? _

Aang was beaming at him, his hands still raised over his head in a position that looked like his arms framed a tornado.

“Look what I can do now, Sokka!”

“Great Aang, but maybe you show me next time, and not make me  _ feel _ it.”

Aang’s face fell for a moment only to brighten again even more when Katara erupted in giggles behind him.

“Stop being such a grump, Sokka! Aang’s doing great.”

He raised his hands in a placating gesture, trying not to lose his balance on the slippery frozen ground.

“I know you both are, I just don’t appreciate being drawn into your bending training.”

Immediately, Katara squinted at him. Oh boy, she really seemed to be stressed out from their training session.

“What have you done?”

“What?”

“What have you done? You didn’t even insult our bending and call it water magic or whatever. So, you either want to placate me beforehand or you want something?”

“What, can I not come to appreciate our Tribe’s inherited traditions and abilities to…”

But Katara’s glare told him very clearly that she didn’t believe one word of his.

“Uhm, do you maybe have a moment? I just have some questions about your new training. You know, at the healers’ hut?”

That had Katara squint at him even more.

“Are you suddenly interested in ‘women’s work’ now?”

Sokka squirmed at the jab, which, somehow, he guessed he deserved and pressed on.

“You know, I was just wondering, let’s say you have a wound where the skin around it is all red and swollen and some disgusting yellow pus is coming out. What’s the best way to treat that?”

For a moment, Katara stared at him, now clearly more surprised than suspicious by that question. Shaking her head, she launched into her lecturing-mode, explaining precisely what to do and not to do and what he’d have to pay attention to depending on what had caused the wound in the first place.

When she was finished, she let out a slow breath, before the suspicion came back as her eyes fell on the bundle of clothes that was still nestled in Sokka’s arms.

“What do you need those old rags for?”

Damn, he couldn’t tell her the same thing that he’d told Yue, because unlike the Princess, Katara _knew_ that he had his own extra pair of training clothes. But could he really risk telling them different lies? Then again, they would never talk about why Sokka needed spare clothes, especially after how he and Yue had parted just a few minutes ago and _he was_ _not going to think about that now_.

“Nothing, I have to bring my current ones to the nice  _ women  _ here who do all the sewing work to get them fixed and I’ll need something to wear while they work.”

Sokka wasn’t proud of how his words obviously angered his sister but his priority right now was to get her off his back and get back to that cell.

As hoped, Katara took the bait.

“You are such an… argh! But Sokka, I swear, if you’ve somehow gotten yourself injured, don’t you dare to expect me…”

“Thanks.” The rest of her words escaped his ears as Sokka was already running from the courtyard back to the Fire Prince, old clothes in his hands and new knowledge in his head.

While he knew that what was lying ahead of him was no easy or fun task, he found his spirits lifted with the triumph of having been successful.

Until his spirits were smashed down with a stranger’s voice coming from the Prince’s cell.

“Good afternoon, your  _ Highness _ . Let’s try again, shall we? Do you now know who I am?”

The sound of a hand smacking flesh followed Sokka as he bolted from the suddenly very narrow hallway.

And while his warm feet  – he was suddenly so very aware of how warm he was and of how cold he  _ would be _ without clothes  – carried him up the stairs, away from the cell, away from the noises, Sokka suddenly remembered how the polar tiger-wolf had found its death in the end. While he hadn’t been allowed anywhere near the beast, he remembered his father’s tired face when he had entered their igloo in the evening. 

And he clearly remembered his words when asked for the polar tiger-wolf’s whereabouts.  _ You know, Sokka. No matter the atrocities the enemy might have committed, no matter the danger he might once have posed, we, from the Southern Water Tribe, never let somebody find their death in the ice. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: reference to animal death


	8. Sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

A plate full of salted seal-jerky. A plate full of seal-jerky and a jug of wale-spirit. That sounded like the cure to all his problems right now.

Instead, Nuka found himself trotting towards the underground cell for what felt like the tenth time that week, with no snacks and no alcohol, but with way too much trouble on his mind.

He hadn’t meant to yell at Lenka. But when his oldest daughter had reluctantly presented him with a test that she’d failed spectacularly, all that he could think was that  _ he’d  _ been the one to spend every evening for a week studying with her long into the night, making sure that first he and then she would understand, would get it right, and get good results.

To release some frustration, he’d gone to repair the back wall of their storage hut. Sure, a waterbender could have fixed the broken parts in an instant, but Nuka needed to achieve  _ something _ that day.

Of course, it ended with the whole backside of the hut crumpled down in a heap of snow on and  _ in  _ his boots and a free view for his wife at his despairing face through the kitchen window and the no-longer-there wall of the hut.

He hadn’t looked at her long enough to see her laugh.

On the other hand, as far as releasing frustration went, his current destination was probably even better suited than a visit to the city’s tavern. And if the state the firebender had been in the last time he’d left him was any indication, Nuka would definitely get some results there.

The guard on duty greeted him with a short nod, opening the door for him with a blank yet serious face. Nuka didn’t know the man this time, but maybe that wasn’t too bad, it helped with keeping up the professional air and might even intimidate the Fire Prince a bit.

But when he stepped in front of the prisoner, Nuka’s smirk slid off his lips faster than an avalanche.

The Prince looked… composed, almost comfortable.

There were no other words to describe the way he sat there, leant against the ice wall, both arms loosely hugging one knee. He looked as if he would sit there in a formal kneeling position, had his bad leg allowed it.

And if the posture wasn’t enough, his eyes were lucid, almost burning again with energy and  _ fire _ .

Gone were the tremors wracking his body from the cold, gone was the rhythmic clattering of his teeth and the far gone yet  _ pained _ look in his eyes.

Gone were all results of his efforts.

Pure rage washed over Nuka. Clenching his fists  _ hard _ , he took a measured step towards the Prince.

“What have you  _ done _ ?”

That moment, his snarl probably lived up to one of those he had become accustomed to seeing on the face in front of him.

Prince Zuko must have noticed his rapid change in demeanour too, because he tensed, backed himself up against the wall, one hand pressed against the ice as if to use it as leverage if necessary.

“I didn’t do anything!”

Ah, maybe Nuka still needed some more practise to master that snarl after all.

He could not let the prisoner get in charge of his emotions, damn it. Maybe he was too riled up for this after all.

Nuka took a deep breath, stood as tall and broad as he could and spoke with his voice as calm and composed as possible.

“Fine, this way you are at least coherent enough to talk this time.”

The other’s eyes widened for a moment and then he slumped back down in…relief? What?

Tui and La, what was going on today?

“You think you won’t? Now wait, I - “

A quiet mumble interrupted him.

“What was that?”

Lifting his head once more, Prince Zuko looked him square in the eyes.

“I said, right now you’re the only one who’s talking.”

The fact that his words weren’t even spoken with malice or sarcasm gave Nuka the last provocation he needed, and he let his foot shoot forward, aiming a kick at the man’s stomach.

The pain that exploded in his foot would have made the prisoner talk for sure, had his kick landed on the man and not the wall behind him.

“Fuck you, you little brat!”

How had he even evaded Nuka when still more or less chained to the wall?

His next kick landed, and so did his fist that followed, smacking the Prince’s head back against the wall, leaving new blood running from his nose.

Breathing heavily, Nuka rotated his wrist a few times, while slowly clearing his head from the rage that he’d been in.

He had to focus. After all, he hadn’t been lying with his optimistic words about the Prince’s regained ability to speak. He was here to get answers, not to get rid of his frustrations by beating somebody into a pulp.

No matter how much he wanted to or how much the other person deserved it.

“I guess you said something useful this time. You’re right, it’s your time to talk now. What are the Fire Nation’s plans concerning the Northern Water Tribe?”

In the end, he almost  _ did  _ end up beating the Prince into a pulp, because he just  _ would not talk _ .

To be precise, he hadn’t said  _ one more word  _ after his little defiant jibe at Nuka in the beginning.

“You won’t talk this way? Fine.”

Whirling around, Nuka grabbed the thin wooden rod leaning by the door, usually serving as a means to scrub off loose pieces of ice or layers of snow off the room’s ceiling and high corners.

He dearly hoped his hesitance wasn’t showing. Delivering kicks and punches, that he knew, had done so before, during occasional brawls at the bar or as a teenager in the schoolyard. He’d never before  _ whipped _ somebody.

But he’d failed at explaining simple geology to his daughter, had failed at repairing the hut, failed at leaving the prisoner a broken man… The rod made a whistling sound as it snapped through the air.

The Prince made none at all.

He simply sat there, blood still dripping from his nose and lips, eyes wide, staring down at the red mark that was rapidly forming on his forearms he had held over his head.

Suddenly, he was on his feet, fighting stance ready, more fury on his face than Nuka had ever seen.

“Fuck you! You don’t get to  _ whip _ me, you’re not - “

He swallowed his words, and for some reason, the action morphed his expression from fury to fear.

Tui and La, maybe the boy wasn’t lucid after all. He did not make any sense.

And just like that, the makeshift-whip in his hands seemed like the best thing that had happened to Nuka today. For the first time, he didn’t care one bit that the other was on his feet, was ready for a fight, because he’d never be near enough, would never have to worry about whether his fists were already covered in his own blood as well, wouldn’t even have to exert himself.

It made everything so much easier. He’d succeed today, he knew it.

“I’ll ask again.” Nuka couldn’t quite get the sure triumph out of his voice. “What are the Fire Lord’s plans for the Northern Water Tribe?”

The Prince didn’t block this time, he couldn’t, wasn’t fast enough, so he crumpled back down on the ground, holding his left thigh with a hiss. 

The defiant look on his faced stayed up; and with it the rod.

It was only when the prisoner had curled up on the ground, arms raised over his head as best as he could, finally looking more like an animal instead of a man again, that Nuka paused, sucking in deep breaths.

He looked at the man’s eyes, trying to hold his gaze, to see the defiance finally washed from the glare.

There was no defiance anymore  – there was nothing. The Prince’s eyes were dull, unfocused. He wasn’t  _ there  _ anymore. 

Damn it all, had he gone too far?

But that wouldn’t make any sense, he’d seen in what shape the Fire Prince had been capable of attacking and fighting. He wouldn’t  _ break _ that easily.

So, he tried again.

“What are the Fire Lord’s plans for the Northern Water Tribe?”

And just like that, he got a reply.

“I’m sorry.”

Nuka paused, eyes narrowed.

So, the boy  _ did _ know something after all.

Obviously, something bad enough and threatening enough that it warranted an apology.

“I don’t want to hear your useless lies! What are the Fire Lord’s plans for the Northern Water Tribe?”

Now, the Prince started to murmur under his breath, barely moving his bloodied lips, eyes still unfocused, but his chest was heaving.

Nuka took some steps forward to hear the mumbled words, but the prisoner flinched instantly, with no way to flee with his back already pressed against the ice.

Eyes now screwed shut, his murmurs became a distressed plea of “I am so sorry” and “I am sorry, sorry!”

And then… _ feathers _ ?

Nuka leaned even closer, trying to catch more words that made their way past split lips in between frantic  _ sorrys _ .

Was he talking about  _ fodder  _ also? Maybe feeding supplies?

Feeling like he finally was getting somewhere, Nuka grabbed the Prince by his unburned ear and yelled.

“Speak clearly!”

For a moment, there was stunned silence. Then this mantra of  _ sorry  _ picked up once more, but Nuka soon realized that there weren’t any hints thrown in this time.

He had lost him.

For a tiny moment, Nuka felt almost lost. Despite clearly having succeeded in getting some information out of the Prince and while he was still in power, he was no longer in control. Whatever had happened, whatever he had caused here, he couldn’t control it any more than he could an avalanche.

And while he was very reluctant to admit it, somewhat worried even, that he’d caused something lasting, it would probably be best if a healer took a look at the prisoner if this, whatever it was, didn’t stop soon.

Not to mention the countless welts and cuts that covered shoulders, arms and legs. How had they only now become this visible and  _ bloody _ ?

Clenching his jaw hard, still feeling a bit lost, Nuka tore his eyes from the still muttering form of the other man and strode out of the cell, splintered rod still in hand.

They’d need a new one anyway.

He was still gripping the thin wooden handle when he pushed through the council-room’s doors but had long since lost the grip on the euphoric triumph that he’d felt minutes before. That had seeped out of his body along with the adrenaline.

Nuka’s voice sounded hollow and darker than usual to his own ears when he dutifully reported: “Chief Arnook, I can now confirm that the prisoner has at least some knowledge concerning the Fire Lord’s plans. Since he was repeatedly apologizing for whatever they’ve planned, I am afraid it’s also safe to say that it must be exceptionally horrible.”

The feeling of success didn’t come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: dissociation and flashbacks


	9. Duty

An old woman stood over him. How long had she been there? Why hadn’t he noticed her come in? Had he been asleep? Unconscious?

He propped himself up on one elbow and sat against the wall. His body hurt all over. It seemed like there wasn’t a part the man had missed with the staff. Zuko didn’t remember most of it; he’d probably passed out half-way through.

“Careful, boy,” the woman said softly. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

She was kneeling by his injured leg. The fabric had been pulled up and water glowed over his wound, following the deft movements of the woman’s fingers. Only then did he notice that the pain in his leg was different, that it felt like the tissue was being pulled with the water.

He tried to pull the leg back and, to his surprise, she let him. He stared her down.

“Even old ladies torture prisoners in the Northern Water Tribe?”

She faced him with kindness in her ocean-blue eyes. She looked like what he always imagined a grandma would look: stern yet caring. He thought he could see pity in the lines in her face, but he chose to ignore it.

“No, young man. My name is Yugoda and I am a healer. You are badly injured and I’m here to help you.”

He scoffed and hugged his injured leg around the knee. Healer or not, he didn’t want a waterbender anywhere near him or that wound.

“No, you’re here to help  _ them _ . You want to heal me so they can beat me up again.”

The old woman shook her head. When she looked at him, she seemed disappointed and sad.

“I’m here to help  _ you _ , if you let me. My duty will always be to my patients. Wherever they come from.”

Zuko considered his options. His leg looked awful. It was likely already infected and he could lose it or even die. His nose was broken and two of his ribs were making it even harder to breathe. That, in addition to all the bruises and welts all over his body. If he let the healer do her job, she would fix all of that. So the man could break it all over again.

If he didn’t let her, he saw two possibilities. Either they’d keep hurting him anyway and he’d have broken bones on top of broken bones, or she would heal him against his will before they hit him again.

In all three he ended up getting hurt. It might as well cooperate so it would hurt a little less overall.

He extended his leg again. The woman smiled and made the water dance around the wound.

“Thank you,” they both said at the same time.

It took more effort than he’d expected to not pull his leg back again. Healing hurt almost as much as opening the wound in the first place. It was being forced to close faster than it normally would and it resisted. He did his best not to scream.

“Do you have a name, young man?”

Why was she asking that? She already knew his name. Was she trying to distract him from the pain? He did need a good distraction.

“You know my name.”

“No, I do not. I was only told that the hunters found a firebending soldier in a trap a few days ago.”

Days? It had only been days? He’d completely lost track of time. His injuries, the cold, the isolation had disoriented him. It felt like a lifetime had passed, or was it just that he was living an entirely different life?

So the woman didn’t know who he was. He was being kept a secret. The idea surprised him, at first. He expected that capturing the enemy prince would be a cause for celebration for the entire tribe. But no, they didn’t want anyone to know he was here. He’d come closer than anyone before and they didn’t know how. He’d told them nothing. There was no point in bragging about a prisoner they couldn’t break. And, if word got out, it could reach the Fire Nation and a rescue team would be sent. They couldn’t risk that.

“Zuko,” he answered simply.

If no one had told the healer who he was, he wasn’t going to either. Perhaps she didn’t mind healing a Fire Nation soldier, but the Fire Nation Prince was a completely different matter.

“And how old are you, Zuko?”

So she was asking him questions. If the sneaky bastards thought they could fool him, they were wrong. He’d grown up with Azula for a sister and he knew a trick when he saw one.

“It’s none of your business.”

With a sharp tug, the pain was gone. The wound was now closed without even a scar to show for it.

The woman neared him. The water in her hand flowed to his face. It tickled his cheek before it moved over his nose and lips, washing away the dry blood.

“I’m not questioning you, I just thought you looked a little young to be a soldier. Is that how you do it in the Fire Nation?” Before he could repeat his answer, she continued. “Don’t bother, I’m just making conversation.”

There was a loud crack as the woman set his nose back in place. Zuko clenched his teeth not to cry out.

“I am truly sorry about that, it had to be done.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that excuse. This time, though, it was true.

“How old are you?” he managed to ask despite the water on his nose.

“Eighty years old.”

“Aren’t you a little old to be a healer? Shouldn’t you retire to look after your grandkids or something?”

That was something grandparents did, right? He’d only met grandfather Azulon and he couldn’t stand his grandchildren, much less look after them.

Yugoda chuckled, but the water didn’t stray from its course.

“Will you stop firebending when you get old?”

“Of course not.”

“Then there’s your answer. Healing isn’t just my job, it’s my bending. It’s as much part of me as I suppose fire is a part of you.”

Zuko nodded. He understood perfectly. Being separated from his fire, losing it, was like a part of him had been torn from the rest. He would get it back, of course, but for now, he didn’t feel whole, he didn’t feel himself. He would never stop bending again.

As a bender, Yugoda understood what it was like for him. They must’ve realized that he couldn’t bend anymore, or he would’ve done a lot more damage to the cell and the guards. He’d probably have escaped by now if he still had his fire. They knew,  _ she _ knew and she let it go on anyway. The old woman seemed nice enough, but she was still the enemy.

“If your duty is to your patients, how can you be a part of  _ this _ ?”

The woman was done with his face. The water collected in her hands and she stared at his scar for a long moment. Zuko wondered if she would heal it too, but then she lifted his tunic and spread the water over the multicoloured bruises on his chest and stomach. He didn’t want to imagine the damage hidden underneath.

“Well, it’s my duty to do my best for any patient, no matter what happened to them.”

“You don’t even care!” he snapped. How dare she act like she was helping him when she was working for the people who’d hurt him in the first place? “You know what they did to me, you’re seeing it right now, you’re healing it! And you know they’ll keep doing it! Are you okay with that?”

Only silence followed. The old woman pushed and pulled at the water while Zuko focused on not moving. Finally, she paused and took a deep breath.

“You’re young. You haven’t seen much of the war, or of life, yet.” She didn’t quite meet his eyes, but her gaze lingered on his scar once more. “If this is how we get information that will help protect our tribe, then it must be done. It’s your life against many; it’s a sacrifice we must make. You’ll understand this when you’re older,” she added in a sorrowful tone.

They both knew that was a lie. Unless he managed an unlikely escape, he wouldn’t live much longer. They would kill him when they got tired of not getting answers or they would kill him during Zhao’s invasion for not warning them. No doubt they thought they’d kill him when they got what they wanted from him. That would never happen, but either way, he’d wind up dead.

The worst part was that Uncle would never know what had happened to him. They’d said goodbye before Zuko left the ship, and he’d promised to come back with the Avatar. Instead, he’d gotten lost and captured by hunters while Uncle awaited his return.

How long would he wait? Other generals wouldn’t care about a soldier lost to the enemy. They would cut their losses and move on. That was certainly what Father would do. But not Uncle. Uncle cared about him, whether he was just another soldier or his nephew. He looked after all his men.

Zuko hoped Uncle had given up. He should count him as dead and leave. Zuko was pretty much dead already, it was only a matter of time. Uncle could finally go home. Or he could go somewhere quiet and peaceful, with lots of sun, and open a tea shop and play Pai Sho all day. Uncle deserved to be happy.

His biggest regret was that he’d been mean to Uncle last time they’d spoken. Uncle only wanted what was best for him and he’d been a jerk. Zuko knew that after what’d happened to Lu Ten, Uncle looked at him like a son. Now Uncle had lost his only child all over again. And it was Zuko’s fault.

_ I’m so sorry, Uncle _ .

A tear ran down his right cheek. He wiped it away with his sleeve.

The woman looked up at him with a warm smile and he hated her for it. He didn’t want to see her pity and he didn’t want her to see his weakness.

“I’m sorry, I know this hurts. Do you need a break?”

He simply glared at her.

“Keep. Going.” he grunted.

The old woman sighed and moved on to the wounds on his arms and shoulders. These were the less serious injuries he’d endured, but also the worst. It wasn’t about the pain. It was always there now, but it was also always somewhat numb, either due to the cold or the threat of unconsciousness. It barely even bothered him most of the time.

No, it was something else. The man had  _ whipped _ him. Just like F– Who was he to treat him like that? Nobody. But Zuko had let it happen anyway. He’d let the man whip him like an animal. He should’ve fought back harder. He should’ve taken the rod and turned the tables. Instead, he’d cowered on the floor and let the man hit him over and over and over again until he couldn’t even remember it. Like a weakling. It was all his fault. He deserved it.

He wouldn’t even be here if he weren’t such a failure. Azula would’ve captured the Avatar weeks ago, long before he even got to the North Pole. And if he did get here, she wouldn’t land in the wrong place to get taken by the enemy. His sister would’ve wiped the floor with them. If need be, she’d escape her icy cell before the day was done. She would never lose her inner fire.

Azula would never let an old waterbender touch her to heal her as Zuko had. He should’ve been able to get by on his own, but he couldn’t. He needed help like he always did for everything. He wasn’t good enough. It disgusted him.

The healer was soon done. It felt odd to no longer be in pain. His body was mended without a trace of what’d happened and even the damage caused by the pirate explosion was gone. Yet, Zuko wasn’t fine. He was still tired and hungry and cold. He was still too much of a failure to escape this place.

The old woman stared into his eyes as if she could see into his very soul. She moved her hand to touch his scar and he smacked her away. If she wanted to punish him for it, he was ready.

She only sighed.

“I wish we hadn’t met under these circumstances, Zuko.” She said his name with some semblance of affection. “I wish this wasn’t your life, or anybody’s.”

“But not enough to do anything about it.”

This time she shook her head. Why did the gesture seem so dismayed?

“No, I’m afraid not. The good of the many outweighs the harm of a single person. It must be done”

Zuko matched her gaze.

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” he said. “Thank you for keeping me alive so they can beat me up some more.”

The old woman stood up and opened the heavy metal door. She hesitated on the threshold and looked down at him.

“Look at it this way: You’re still alive and life is sacred. Don’t make it harder for yourself and it might surprise you.”

With that, she left, and the door was immediately locked behind her. She’d sounded just a little bit like Uncle, making Zuko dig his nails into his palms.

He’d failed Uncle. He’d failed Father. He’d failed himself. He hadn’t captured the Avatar and he was in the enemy’s hands. But no more. He wouldn’t keep letting  _ this _ happen to him.

He sat back and breathed slowly and intently, as Uncle had taught him. He refused to let these people hurt him anymore. He refused to fail his mission. He refused to lose his fire.

Zuko breathed and the fire inside him stirred but didn’t ignite. He breathed again.


	10. Picking up Strays

Something was going on behind her back. Katara was sure of it. She just didn’t know what it was. Both Master Yugoda and Master Pakku were involved, but they represented the opposites of waterbending. What would bring them together? Even Sokka was in on it. What could they want from him? What could all three of them possibly have in common?

It had to be something very serious if Sokka wasn’t telling her anything. There were no secrets between them. At least until now. What could be so bad that he was hiding it from his own sister?

Not that he was keeping the secret very well. Sokka hadn’t been himself ever since they’d arrived at the North Pole. At first, Katara thought it was all about Yue. Her brother had fallen head over heels for the princess and he’d awkwardly tried to impress her several times. It was adorable. For all her teasing, Katara had been rooting for him.

But that wasn’t all of it. Sokka wasn’t just lovesick. He was fidgety and easily startled. He disappeared at all hours and his excuses were getting less and less believable. He asked her all sorts of weird questions about healing and cold damage. She’d wondered if he’d found a wounded wild animal in the snow and wanted to keep it as a pet.

Then she’d noticed something was wrong about Master Pakku. It had been harder to see because she didn’t know him very well yet. Sometimes, he seemed angry for no reason. More than once he’d cancelled their lessons at the last minute. It didn’t fit with the strict teacher she’d thought him to be, so she asked the other students. They said this had never happened before.

Katara knew Master Pakku was one of Chief Arnook’s advisors. Could it be something about politics? Was something going on with the Northern Water Tribe? Was it something about the war?

That was before she made the connection. Katara hadn’t thought much of both Master Pakku and Sokka acting weird until it got to Master Yugoda too. Three was a pattern, but she couldn’t see what it was. It made no sense.

Yesterday, a messenger had interrupted her lesson to deliver a note to Master Yugoda. Katara had seen her brow furrow and her mouth turn into a thin line as she read it. Master Yugoda dismissed them all in a hurry and ignored Katara’s worried questions.

In today’s lesson, Master Yugoda acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but that wasn’t true. Once or twice she forgot what she was saying and Katara caught her staring into the distance when she should’ve been observing her students’ exercises.

Katara turned in her sleeping bag and stared at the ceiling. On her left, Aang breathed softly, deep in sleep and probably dreaming of Appa. Sokka, on the contrary, tossed and turned. Katara’s questions didn’t let her sleep.

She couldn’t take it anymore. It was decided. Tomorrow she’d crack this mystery once and for all. Whatever was going on, she had the right to know.

  
  


Aang and Katara woke up before dawn, as usual. Sokka slept while they got ready, but there was a peaceful smile on his lips now. Katara wanted her brother to always sleep this soundly instead of being tormented by worries or nightmares. She’d find out what was going on and help him.

It was still early morning, but Aang was already bubbling with energy.

“What do you think we’re gonna learn today, Katara?” he asked. “You think Master Pakku will finally teach us how to surf? Or maybe that thing with a lot of arms like a star-octopus?”

“Aang, I’m not going today.”

His face fell. He stopped in his tracks to look at her.

“Why not? Is something wrong?”

Katara had rehearsed her lie while she couldn’t sleep.

“Huh, well, I’m gonna have an extra lesson with Master Yugoda. I need to catch up with the other girls. Healing is so important, you know.”

Aang nodded, but he didn’t look pleased with her answer.

“Yeah, right, sure. Healing is super important. You gotta go learn some healing!” He was back to his cheerful self by the end of the sentence.

“See ya later, Aang.”

“See ya!”

They went in their separate directions. Aang walked to Master Pakku’s lessons while Katara pretended to turn towards Master Yugoda’s hut. Instead, she hid behind a column and watched Aang. After he turned the corner, Katara walked back to their house.

She didn’t go inside. Next to the wall, she raised some stairs and climbed to the roof. She lay on the ice and put a hand to it. In front of her, a small hole opened and she peered through it.

Sokka was already up. He was staring at the seal jerky in his hand instead of eating it. It wasn’t like Sokka to not eat when there was food in front of him. It was bad. Very bad.

Katara watched him leave and followed at a distance. Sokka’s day started with fighting practise with other young men. She saw the Hahn guy Sokka had been complaining about for the first time and he was definitely a jerk. The boys sparred all morning with and without weapons, and Katara noticed, with no small amount of pride, that her big brother was becoming a very capable warrior.

After lunch, Sokka crossed paths with Princess Yue on a bridge. Katara was too far away to hear what they were saying – she could only see Yue’s blushes and Sokka’s clumsy gestures – but she suspected the encounter had been on purpose. The pair leaned on the rail of the bridge, watching the water run under them and talking.

Katara grew bored of watching her brother trying to flirt with Yue. She’d been building tiny ice sculptures for what felt like an eternity when the princess kissed Sokka’s cheek and left.

He stayed on the bridge for a few more minutes with a silly smile on his face. A breeze blew and Sokka shivered. Something was wrong. Sokka should be warm and cosy in his several layers and fur-lined parka.

He looked around as if trying to find somebody watching him. Katara quickly created an ice wall to shield herself from view.

Sokka walked around the city through streets Katara didn’t recognize. It felt like moving through a maze. She was wondering what would be at the centre when he stopped at the back of a huge building she had seen once before. They were at the palace.

He pushed a section of the wall and it opened for him. Katara admired the waterbending work; the door was practically invisible if one didn’t know it was there. She followed Sokka inside.

The walls were decorated with stunning engravings and beautiful sculptures. The precision of the delicate work amazed Katara. She wished she could stop to study it properly but she didn’t have the time. She promised herself to come back later. One day, she would be able to create art just as beautiful with her bending.

Sokka looked over his shoulder. He leaned into a nook that housed a statue and took out a small bundle wrapped in cloth. Katara couldn’t tell what it was, but it looked soft and light by the way he held it. He snuck it inside his coat.

The long, wide hallways gave way to hidden, narrow stairs and discreet, underground corridors. It was darker here. Katara wondered what kind of business her brother could have in the bowels of the palace. It was getting weirder and weirder. Worry tightened around her heart.

She looked before she turned the corner. An armed guard was standing before one of the metal doors that lined the walls. Sokka exchanged a few words with the man, who opened the door and let him in.

Katara couldn’t follow any further. She kneeled and opened a hole on the floor. It led to the water tunnels. No one would be there. She jumped down and closed the ice after herself.

Katara firmed her feet on the ground and bent her knees slightly. She put her hands up and pulled them to her. The ice wall in front of her opened up at her will and she walked through it. A few meters before where she estimated her brother was, she raised herself to the ceiling and, touching the ice, made it thin enough to be transparent. The room was empty, so she pulled herself up.

It was a small, square room and it was completely bare. No furniture, no trunks, no boxes. What was the point of having empty rooms? Was this a northern thing or a rich people thing?

It dawned on her: This wasn’t the house of an ordinary rich person. This was the palace and she was underground. There was a guard in the corridor. These were prison cells.

What was Sokka doing here? Who could he be visiting? He didn’t know a lot of people here. Why would he smuggle them something? And what was in that bundle?

What did Master Yugoda and Master Pakku have to do with this?

Katara ran to the wall and forced it open. She stumbled inside the next cell.

Sokka turned to face her. His eyes bulged wide and he took a step to the side.

“Katara?! What are you doing here?”

She ignored his question and looked around him at what he was trying to hide.

A boy was sitting curled up in the corner, trembling. He wore the blue of the Water Tribes, but he was pale and everyone in the poles knew that his clothes weren’t enough for this cold. The ponytail was gone, replaced with a dark stubble, but she didn’t need it to recognize him. That scar was more than enough.

He seemed thinner than she remembered.

Zuko looked up at her with the raging golden eyes she would never forget. He got to his feet and assumed a fighting stance despite the chains binding his hands. It was a sad, pathetic imitation of all those times they’d fought him.

Katara reached out to the water and ice all around them, but she didn’t pull them to her. She wouldn’t fight someone who’d already lost.

“Did they send you too?” Prince Zuko asked in a voice stronger than his body should be capable of.

“No, of course… not?” Sokka half-asked. It hurt to see the suspicion in his eyes. “Did they?”

“No! How could you think that? I followed you. I wanted to know what was going on.”

Sokka sighed in relief and hugged her tightly. Behind him, Zuko didn’t move at all.

This wasn’t right. Zuko was the Fire Nation Prince and he was a monster who’d chased them across the world trying to capture Aang, but this wasn’t right. He was cold and probably hungry. Maybe the people in the North didn’t remember it anymore, but in the South, they knew very well what that was like. No one deserved that and Katara wouldn’t allow anyone to suffer through it.

“Are you hurt? Have any cold burns?” She couldn’t help the kindness in her tone.

The prince shook his head. “No. An old lady healed me some days ago.”

Master Yugoda. That explained her behaviour. And Master Pakku knew about this too because he was close to the chief. It all made sense now.

Sokka had taken the bundle out of his parka and opened it. It was a blanket with bread, a couple of packages of jerky, and a box with boiled eggs.

Zuko wrapped himself in the blanket and attacked the food. The bread was gone already. Katara had never seen anything like this. Not even Sokka ate that greedily. This wasn’t hunger, it was desperation.

How could they let him starve when there were banquets at Chief Arnook’s table?

“This ends now. I’m gonna have a chat with the chief.”

She marched to the door, but Sokka grabbed her arm and dragged her through the hole she’d opened in the wall.

“Katara, don’t!” he whispered out of the prince’s earshot. “You can’t do that!”

“Sokka! Look at him! I know he’s the enemy, but this isn’t okay.” She kept her voice low as well.

“I know. That’s why I bring him food and covers. But he _is_ the enemy and we need to know what he knows about the Fire Nation’s plans.”

“That’s no excu–”

Her brother raised a hand. “And you can’t piss off Chief Arnook. We need him. You and Aang need a waterbending teacher. Aang’s gonna need waterbending to fight the Fire Lord. We can’t risk it.”

Katara wanted to protest, but she couldn’t find an argument. Sokka was right. Mastering waterbending was too important and the only masters alive were in the North Pole. They couldn’t afford to lose their help.

She nodded. “I won’t say anything.”

“You can’t tell Aang either,” Sokka said. “He wouldn’t understand.”

“I know.”

Katara lowered her eyes. She was ashamed she did understand. Guilt was already eating away at her. She was going to let a boy starve and freeze so she and Aang could learn waterbending. It was vital to win the war, but that didn’t make it any less wrong.

Sokka touched her shoulder. “We can still help. We can make it less bad.”

They both knew that was a comforting lie they told themselves so they could live with their decision. What they were doing wasn’t enough. No lie was going to change that.

Her brother went back to the prince. Without a word, Zuko returned the blanket and Sokka wrapped the empty box and packages inside it while Katara watched them. This was a routine between them. Zuko knew his place in it all too well.

The prince stared at her. His gaze was a challenge, but she didn’t know what he was daring her to do.

Katara swallowed and took a step back. She closed the wall and turned around.

His eyes still haunted her.


	11. Suspicions

Rationally, Sokka knew that he’d done nothing wrong, that everything had been in his, Katara’s, and Zuko’s best interest. Okay, maybe mainly in his own best interest.

Still, there was no reason to feel as guilty as he did while trudging behind Katara through the icy hallways.

Maybe it was because of the way Katara held herself while striding ahead, almost marching in front of him. There was so much determination, power and force in her steps. Oh boy, she was pissed.

If he was being honest, Sokka couldn’t understand where his sister took all that energy from. Sure, it was only midafternoon, at the latest  – but the past hour had sucked up all his energy for the day; he felt ready to fall straight back into his warm furs.

And maybe he also wanted a reason to run from his sister’s ire.

He would worry later. For now, he’d find a way to relax and recharge his energy. Maybe he’d find a secluded spot somewhere and train with his weapons. Or he could look for a field wide enough for him to train with his boomerang without breaking something or hurting someone.

Did the Northerners even know how to use their ancient, culturally unique weapon?

He’d have to ask Hahn about it some time. It'd be a wonderful feeling to have an ability the other didn’t. And even if he did know how to use a boomerang, Sokka would still be better at it.

With the prospect of besting the guy in something, Sokka mentally made a note to himself that he’d challenge Hahn for sure someday.

But before he found an opportunity to get away from his sister and the tension that she still seemed to radiate when they stepped out into the suddenly blinding daylight, they were both stopped dead in their tracks by a cheerful voice.

“Here you are, Katara! Oh, hi, Sokka.”

Aang came flying towards them, riding on a ball of air and ice. Or maybe his usual air scooter just swirled around so much snow that it seemed to be part of it.

Anyway, Aang let his air-snowball evaporate underneath him and gently glided to his feet in front of them.

Suddenly, he scrunched his face up in confusion, looking first at a seemingly frozen Katara then at the door they’d just stepped out of.

“Huh,” he wondered. “Where were you? I thought you’d be training at Yugoda’s? But when Master Pakku let me go early today because I have already mastered the new move he’d showed us and I am faaar ahead of the others so I asked him if I could go and train on my own, because that way I’d progress faster… I don’t know if he believed me, but he let me go anyway and…”

He faltered, apparently, Sokka and Katara weren’t the only ones who’d lost the thread of that sentence.

“Anyway  – I wanted to come and watch you train, but you weren’t there and Master Yugoda said she hadn’t seen you today, so…”

He trailed off.

Noticing that his sister was frantically looking for words and was probably going to fail miserably at lying to Aang  – although, knowing Aang, he’d probably believe everything Katara said  – he quickly interjected.

“I know I shouldn’t keep Katara from her lessons, but I caught this biiig rhino-shark this morning and needed Katara’s help with cleaning and slicing it up, you know, it can be tricky to properly get out all the intestines and  – “

Aang’s smile had fallen from his face faster than one could say rhino-shark.

“Okay, okay, I get it, please don’t – ” He was now hastily waving his hands in front of his face as if he could swat away Sokka’s words.

“Sorry, Aang,” Katara mumbled. And while Sokka knew that she was hardly referring to the imaginary dead fish, her words did their job all the same.

“It’s fine, Katara. I know that it’s your way of living and I respect that and it’s fine, really. Do you want me to show you what I’ve learned today!?” At least half the eagerness in Aang’s voice stemmed from changing the topic, Sokka was sure.

Finally awaking from her stunned and guilty stupor, Katara let a beautiful fake smile split her tense features and grasped Aang’s hand to drag him off to the nearest training field. “Sure, Aang, I’d love to.”

And she probably really did, Sokka thought. He imagined that Katara wanted to forget for just a short moment the horror and heaviness of what she’d just found out; just like Sokka. Not that his baby sister could keep any situation that she could help in from her mind for long.

He was now, Sokka concluded, in a situation where it’d be safer to tag her along than to still try to keep her away. He’d rather have Katara at his side than against him. Partly to protect her and partly to protect himself from her.

Sokka made his way back to their hut to retrieve his weapons. He hadn’t taken them with him; they would be in the way while sneaking, they could clank against the walls and give him away, and really, who’d he use them against? Zuko? He probably didn’t even have the energy to properly stand without support. Somebody from the Northern Water Tribe? He’d always be better off lying his way out of being found out.

He was still mulling over Katara’s reaction to finding out about and seeing Prince Zuko and sorting out all those feelings that had brought when he rounded a corner and promptly crashed nose-first into a… very furry wall of seal-jerky?

His bafflement kept him sitting in the snow, where he’d fallen on his behind, for a moment before he quickly jumped back to his feet and found himself face to face with a man whose gaze was at least as befuddled as he imagined his own. In his hand he held a small piece of jerky, the rest of it now stuck at his parka’s fur collar where Sokka had run into him. Oh.

“Man, I am sorry. Really sorry. What a pity to waste good jerky, eh?”

Sokka dearly hoped that by showing his own appreciation for seal-jerky, he’d get some brownie points before being yelled at or, worse, having to buy a new parka.

“There’s plenty where that came from, don’t worry, esteemed Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe.”

The words sounded genuine enough, yet cold. While he couldn’t quite place it, Sokka didn’t like the guy’s tone one bit.

And then it hit him like a block of ice. It wasn’t the man’s tone that let Sokka’s hair stand on edge, it was his voice.

This was the man who’d been in Zuko’s cell when Sokka wanted to bring him food and clothes. This was the man who’d hit him and beat him up and probably done many of the things that Sokka had only seen the gruesome results of.

This was the man who tortured a teenager with his bare hands… those hands that by now had fished another seal jerky from a small bag and offered him one.

Sokka felt sick.

Taking measured breaths, Sokka took the treat from those bloody, grimy  – there was no blood, there was no grime  – fingers and flashed the other man what he hoped was a relaxed smile.

“Thank you very much. But please drop those formalities. After all, we’re both warriors of the Water Tribes, aren’t we?”

The man subtly looked him up and down and Sokka now really had to hold himself back in order to not yell him. But then…

“Of course we are. We are both strong warriors who know their own Tribe’s strength. Don’t we?”

Sokka nodded dumbfounded. Where was the other going with this?

“So, it might be best if each of us took care of their own Tribe’s security and safety, wouldn’t you agree? I understand the necessity of the Avatar learning to waterbend, please do not think I am trying to run you off. I am merely saying that we can deal with the Fire Nation without your aid and do not want to keep you from the Avatar’s journey.”

Ah, that was probably the politest way to say  _ Stay the fuck out of our business! _

Sokka knew that he was walking on thin ice now, but he had to know

“How will you hold off the Fire Nation if its army ever reaches your shores? Are you hiding a superweapon?”

The metaphorical ice under Sokka’s boots cracked dangerously. Something equally dangerous flashed over the man’s face for a split second.

“Not a weapon, an incentive.”

The ice broke and, for a moment, the cold let Sokka’s mind go blank.

“What!?”

Tui and La, he dearly hoped his gasp had sounded rather surprised and not traitorously or horrified. He wanted to yell at this stupid man that maybe irritating the Fire Nation’s leader any further was equivalent to inviting the Fire Nation to their next council meeting and therefore most likely not the best plan. Because he was pretty sure that telling the Fire Lord they held his son as a captive would just bring the Fire Nation to their doorsteps faster and in larger numbers than they were probably already planning on. 

Upon the man’s expecting, scrutinizing eyes on him, Sokka added a hurried:

“That’s incredible. Wow. I am kind of speechless. You might actually change the tides of war.”

The tribesman relaxed and even gave him a small smile.

“We will see about that soon.”

Sokka nodded, somewhere between agreement and farewell, and quickly turned the corner he just rounded minutes ago.

His weapons in their hut long forgotten, Sokka didn’t even notice when his feet took him down the same way he’d been walking with Katara earlier.

His thoughts were racing  – but unlike before, when his state of mind was merely a result of helplessness and anger, now there was an urgency and impending doom causing havoc in his brain.

Tui and La, he had to do something, he –

“Hello, Sokka!” The gods had heard him.

While not a solution, Princess Yue leaning out of an open door, waving Sokka to come closer, for sure was the best distraction he could have wished for.

This time, he didn’t have to fake the relaxed smile spreading over his face one bit.

“Hey, Princess Yue.”

The short contact of her hand clasping his to drag him into the room was enough to send Sokka’s mind reeling all over again  – if for entirely different reasons.

Yue giggled. “Haven’t I told for at least three times by now to just drop the Princess already?!”

“Only two times, as far as I remember. And there could have been somebody out there, seeing us, hearing us…”

“There was nobody there, Sokka. Oh my, where were you with your thoughts again?”

In any other situation, Sokka would have used that opportunity to answer a cocky  _ With you _ . But not in this situation. It was too heavy, too serious, and frankly, Sokka felt like he had to tell somebody that he was down, felt stressed out and helpless without the other person being directly involved.

“Yue, can I talk to you?”

Hearing his serious tone, Yue nodded courtly and lead him into the small attached room, one wall covered with shelves full of various cleaning supplies and at the other stood a low bench. There, Yue let herself sink onto the finely crafted wood and looked up at Sokka expectantly. 

With a sigh, Sokka sat down beside her, mindful yet unsure of the appropriate distance between their shoulders and thighs.

“I had a kind of a fight with my sister today. Nothing serious but she got angry at me for hiding something from her and I did it to protect her or because I didn’t think she’d be on my side with the topic or… I am not sure.” Frustrated, he dragged a hand down his face.

“While I do not know your exact situation, I think I can still sympathize with what you’re describing. Lately, my father has a lot to do with the Avatar’s and your presence here at the North Pole. Please do not take that the wrong way, I am eternally happy that you came here and that we met. Nevertheless, it also means that my father is a lot tenser than usual. Thinking about it, it hadn’t really started with your arrival, but a bit later…”

And while he felt horribly guilty for it, Sokka only managed to listen with half an ear.

What he’d just heard from the Northern Water Tribe’s man  – he had to explain his dilemma to her without giving away that there was a teenager held prisoner and tortured some arm lengths underneath their feet  – ordered by her father, no less. 

Her father, chief Arnook  – Sokka had to talk to him, let him know about his concerns without giving away his ailment and prolonged contact to the Prince. But if he’d just walk up to the Chief, demand an audience  – or whatever a requested meeting with the leader was called here in the North  – he’d do just that.

If there was a link between them, some form of anonymizing the warning, subtly pushing the Chief to make it seem as if the idea was all his own.

Maybe Yue was a solution, after all.

But to get her on board of this, Sokka would have to explain the present situation to her and her father’s role in it.

Would she even believe him?

Would she act behind her father’s back like that?

Could he even ask that of her?

Really, what could he ask of the Princess?

Anything they’d ever do or talk about would be restricted by the Northern Water Tribe’s traditions and society.

There was no way Yue would want to have a role in the plan that was already forming dimly in his mind.

Suddenly, catching him off guard completely since he’d missed half of their conversation’s content, she leaned towards Sokka, her beautiful face finger lengths away from his.

Her warm feathery breath tickled the shaved side of his head and Sokka’s heart hammered so loudly in his ears that he nearly missed the words that whispered keys to locked doors into his left ear.

“I think my father is hiding something.”


	12. Ice and blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

_ “I think my father is hiding something.” _

Yue’s words rang in his ears like an echo and Sokka had the strange urge to hold his breath, to not shatter that opportunity the Princess had just given him with her whispered words. Carefully, he released the air through his lips, giving himself some time to think. He had to tread carefully now.

The excitement of secrecy and adventure in Yue’s gaze upon him started to fall, slowly turning into insecurity and fear.

“Oh, Tui and La, I didn’t mean that disparagingly. I was just – “

The door at their right swung open.

“Sokka of the – “

Chief Arnook froze.

Yue yelled.

Sokka wondered not for the first time that day if, maybe, he had the secret ability to people-bend.

“Princess Yue,” her father greeted with the appropriate nod of his head, but it helped nothing to hide the surprise on his face.

Luckily, Yue had found her composure again and hastily mirrored the formality.

Turning once again to Sokka, the chief asked, now with a stern edge to his voice:

“Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, there’s a matter I need to discuss with you. Would you accompany me?”

Sokka hated not having time to  _ plan _ . He’d have to wing it again.

Following the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe back into the palace’s hallways, he desperately wondered how much he had heard of their conversation and Yue’s last words, while trying to come up with some kind of strategy, but the Chief’s next words brought his mind to a halt all over again.

“I believe you have already met Hahn?”

Huh? What had that guy to do with anything now?

“Yes, of course, I have.”

“Then I trust that you are aware and properly respectful of the nature of the relationship between him and Princess Yue?”

What? Oh.  _ Oh! _

“No! I mean, yes, I am aware, and therefore  _ no _ , there is no reason to be aware of anything because there’s nothing to worry about.” Good riddance, he sounded as confused as Aang. The sidelong glance the Chief gave him over his shoulder indicated that he probably thought something very similar.

Sokka didn’t care, too relieved was he from the realization that Chief Arnook’s suspicions stemmed from worry about the teenager bound by traditions instead of the one bound by iron and ice.

They still had no idea what Sokka had done.

“I swear that Princess Yue and I were not talking about anything that would… contradict her bond to Hahn.”

Wow, he’d have knots in his tongue at the end of the day from all these formalities.

“Good, good. But that was not what I came to talk to you about. As I said to Yue, there’s something I want your opinion on.”

He didn’t slow or stop while talking, and Sokka noticed with a mix of anticipation and dread in his stomach that they were making their way down to the cells. To Prince Zuko’s cell.

“As you were briefly shown and have told us yourself, we currently hold the Prince of the Fire Nation captive. My tribesmen have tried over the past days to gather information about the war and the Fire Nation’s strategies but had a hard time decrypting the information they got.

“That’s why I ask once again to take advantage of your earlier run-ins with the prisoner during your travels. You might understand some information and see connections where we don’t.”

Sokka’s blood froze over. He couldn’t have heard right.

Was Arnook asking of him to  _ torture _ Zuko?

But the look on his face must have shown his thoughts because the Chief was quick to amend.

“I ask you to attend the next interrogation and see what you can get from the words being said.”

For a crazy moment, Sokka considered simply telling them that he’d made a mistake, that it wasn’t Zuko in their cell after all and that oops, they had the wrong guy, his bad. Nothing to beat out there.

He could also tell them the truth, that he had barely had any contact with the Prince that he would have been able to draw information or form knowledge from. That, most of the time, he had been too preoccupied with not getting seriously injured or killed.

And then, Sokka smelled the opportunity that this sudden proximity to the Chief and especially his plans for Prince Zuko brought. He kept his mouth shut.

The rest of the way to the cell, Chief Arnook briefed him on everything they’d gotten from Prince Zuko so far  – which was essentially nothing. Again, Sokka held his words in.

Unlike the past times he’d been here, Sokka was greeted by eyes blue as the deep ocean instead of the gold of the sun.

Master Pakku held his gaze for a moment, before addressing Chief Arnook, who stepped into the cell behind Sokka.

“I take it you have already told him everything?”

“I have. He will help us. As I said, Master Pakku, there’s no use in getting information on our own if it comes too late. We have a fountain of knowledge now and we are way beyond thirsty.”

Master Pakku gave a single nod, then turned to Sokka.

“I hope it is understood that nothing, absolutely nothing you see or hear in here, ever leaves this room unless Chief Arnook, me or Tribesman Nuka bring it up first.” With his last word, he indicated a man standing behind him close to the wall, so Sokka hadn’t seen him.

He recognized him immediately. It was the man whom he had talked to earlier. The one who was in charge of torturing.

But was it really only him now? Was it even him at all anymore?

Sokka could tell that the chain of command had stretched, links had been added.

It seemed that Master Pakku, at least, was a new addition to this setting.

_ Just like me _ , his brain unhelpfully supplied.

Suddenly he noticed that with the unusual additions to the room, there also was an even more unusual absence.

“Uh…where is the Prince?” Sokka let his eyes wander over the bare walls and empty shackles before turning to Master Pakku once more.

It was Chief Arnook who answered.

“Being prepared. Master Yugoda should bring him in at any moment now. Remember to stay back, Sokka. You are here to observe and collect.”

But the last sentence had been drowned out by the door opening once more.

Zuko was led in by two tribesmen Sokka didn’t know, accompanied by Master Yugoda whose face held a pensive expression.

He wasn’t sure why, but Sokka tried to meet neither’s eyes. Instead, he looked sturdily at the Prince’s body, covered only by ripped brown pants, at all those injuries he’d seen which  _ weren’t there anymore _ .

They had healed him.

Like cleaning a sullied canvas before painting it.

A crippling feeling of helplessness let Sokka’s skin crawl as he watched the two tribesmen holding Zuko’s arms  – more to hold him upright than really leading him, Sokka noticed  – locking the iron shackles around the Prince’s wrists and ankles.

As blank as the canvas that Zuko was for his tormentors, as blank had gone Sokka’s brain. Sure, there still was his plan to deter Chief Arnook from his crazy idea to lead the Fire Nation to their harbour by baiting with their captured Prince. But that plan would have to come later, after whatever would happen now.

There was no plan for this. And Sokka found that he was not ready at all.

Zuko hadn’t yet lifted his head which meant that he hadn’t yet seen Sokka there. In an attempt to keep it that way as long as possible, Sokka hastily took some steps back until his shoulders lightly touched the cold door frame. He was told, after all, to stay back. Theoretically, he was only doing what he’d been told.

When Sokka had seen Zuko’s slumped form and had thought back to the way the Prince had so desperately attacked each and every last crumble of food and drop of water, he had wondered whether Zuko’s fiery temper and pride had been dosed by the ice for good.

To his great relief, Zuko’s voice was as biting and proud as always when he sneered:

“What, did you have to bring your friends to help? Already giving up?”

While spoken to the ground, there was no doubt that the words were solely directed at Nuka.

Once again, it was Chief Arnook who gave the answer.

“Prince Zuko. You are an intelligent and experienced young man. Therefore, I am sure that you are aware of your value as our prisoner here. Your knowledge is of utter importance. I also understand that you do not wish to betray important information to your Nation’s enemy.

“You see, these facts lead us to a difficult situation here. We are in a hurry to retrieve the information we need. And therefore, my personal and moral priorities have shifted. I ask you, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, what are the Fire Nation’s plans for the Northern Water Tribe in this war?”

At this, Zuko lifted his head a bit, and Sokka was sure from the expression on his face that Chief Arnook’s words had been something extraordinary in this procedure. The Prince looked deep in thoughts. But not shut down, no, rather as if he really was contemplating his response, looking for words.

Finally, he raised his chin and looked the chief fully in the eyes.

“Even if you knew, there’d be nothing you could do.”

Chief Arnook gave a court nod of acknowledgement.

“As you wish.”

Sokka had been so entranced by the solemnness of the conversation that he almost voiced his surprise out loud when Nuka took a step back, standing almost at Sokka’s side now, and Master Pakku was the one to approach the bound Prince.

Zuko at least seemed as surprised as him because his eyes opened for a split second before they narrowed into dangerous slits.

“What do  _ you _ want?” he hissed.

“Answers instead of questions,” was Master Pakku’s stern reply before he lifted his arms waist high and spread his fingers.

Immediately, ten shimmering tendrils of ice peeled off the walls and slowly floated through the air to come to a halt at each side of the water bender’s head.

Sokka could almost touch the tension that had settled over the cell. Nobody spoke, nobody moved, only the bands of water swirling in the air and Zuko’s good eye flickering between them.

He was unsure.

His forehead wrinkled slightly.

He was afraid.

He breathed out and squared his shoulders.

He was bracing himself.

Then, he firmly met Master Pakku’s eyes.

He challenged. 

The bands of water shot forward and enclosed each of the Prince’s fingers. Suddenly, the swirling slowed down, the water became murky, and Sokka realized that it was turning to ice, freezing Zuko’s fingertips.

A sudden urge to warm and protect his own fingers made Sokka ball his hands into fists and stuff them into his parka’s pockets.

Suddenly, as if he realized only now what was happening, Zuko gasped and stared down at his hands.

“What... what are you doing?!”

“Waiting for your answers.”

Sokka stared intently at Zuko’s fingers, but he could not see what had him reacting like that. Something must have been happening because, suddenly, the prince gritted his teeth and started to wiggle his fingers as if to shake off the ice.

Instead of disappearing, the water started to spread, slowly enclosing the joints of the fingers, sliding over the knuckles and making its way over the hands’ backs to the shackled wrists.

The prince’s breath quickened, this time in fear, no doubt, and he stared back at Master Pakku.

“What are you doing?!”

This time, Sokka could definitely hear the fear in his voice.

With a start, Sokka understood Zuko’s question. After all, where was Master Pakku taking the new water from?

Of course, he knew the answer, but his mind was not ready yet to acknowledge the horror of what he was witnessing.

Master Pakku gave him no time to stay in this ignorance’s bliss.

“The human body consists of 80% of water. Even that of a firebender.”

“You can talk as mighty and polite as you want, you prove yourself that you are a barbaric peasant just like – “

The rest of Zuko’s insult was locked behind ice as his lips were suddenly glued together by frozen water.

“You know what I want to hear from you. Give us answers and you might get a warmer blanket for the night.”

As Master Pakku spoke, the ice vanished from Zuko’s lips, leaving them dryer than they had been before, split open and bleeding more from loss of moisture than they had been from past punches. But no more words slipped through them.

Sokka felt frozen in place. Even if he had wanted to move or avert his eyes, he wouldn’t have been able to. He could only stare.

Meanwhile, the ice on Zuko’s arms had continued to spread and was now almost reaching his elbows. The prince stubbornly held Master Pakku’s gaze with his own and had even managed to push down most of the fear in it.

“What are the Fire Nation’s plans?”

Master Pakku’s voice had taken on an almost monotone quality.

Much in contrast, Zuko spat back:

“Fuck you!”

Master Pakku gave a long-suffering sigh before slightly raising his hands a bit further.

Simultaneously, the ice on the Prince’s body grew, wandering up his upper arms where it crept over his shoulders and under his armpits. It stopped.

Master Pakku opened his mouth as if to repeat his question, but Zuko clenched his jaw and stubbornly lifted his chin even more. His resolution to stay silent was clear on his face.

No words were exchanged this time before the ice continued its way down Zuko’s side and chest. Probably his back, too, Sokka thought.

By now, Sokka was shivering as much as Zuko should have been, and Zuko looked as alert and attentive as it was expected of Sokka.

Once more, Master Pakku’s question rang through the room.

Once more the Prince’s silent answer was just as poignant.

Suddenly, Master Pakku jerked his hands up and the ice on Zuko’s body seemed to clear, and then it turned from blue to red.

Zuko screamed.

But Sokka didn’t hear it anymore. He heard noises, felt the cold, saw movement, but his thoughts were wandering. He could feel a presence in front of him, to his right, and, without looking at him, he knew it was Chief Arnook. The Chief, standing by as a teenager was hurt over and over again by one of his tribe’s members. One of his tribe’s members under  _ his _ order. His father was Chief, too. And he would never agree to this. But Sokka hadn’t seen his father in over two years now. Maybe he would?

Sokka tried to ground himself by recalling why he’d seen reason in this earlier, what had justified these measures. He came up blank.

Focusing his eyes back on the scene that was playing out before him didn’t ground him either; rather, his mind went even more blank, his body even number.

Zuko was now breathing hard through clenched teeth, his chin no longer raised in defiance but curled in in defence. He was also no longer staring at Master Pakku but rather down at himself where the red ice now made its way up the Prince’s white neck.

His hard breaths turned more and more into wheezing gasps and the fists he’d held clenched in their shackles relaxed and fell loosely with a clink of the chains.

For a bittersweet moment, Sokka almost  _ hoped _ that Zuko had lost consciousness, but when he looked back up, he was met with wide-open golden eyes. Wide-open, yet unseeing.

The ice grew further, the Prince’s eyes seemed to become duller and duller.

Something wasn’t right.

Sokka felt his body tense, preparing for the fallout. Something  _ wasn’t right _ .

His announcement was swallowed by the loud question Master Pakku suddenly barked at the Prince.

The ice graced the horrible scar’s edge - and everything went to hell.

Why Sokka was asked to make out some words or understand single muttered phrases he’d never now. Because what came next was very clear. He wished it wasn’t.

Zuko trashed, threw himself against the chains as if to reach the ground and screamed and screamed.

“I am sorry! I am  _ sorry _ . Father, Father! Please, I am sorry! I am sorry, I am sorry…”

_ Sorrys _ kept tumbling from the Prince’s blue lips. Along with his shaking shoulders, this was the only indicator of life being left in him.

His face looked ashen.

His eyes looked dead.

Distantly, Sokka heard the creaking of the door opening, saw Master Yugoda stepping up to Zuko, shoving Master Pakku to the side.

He was about to protest, an angry scowl forming on his forehead, but Master Yugoda’s voice held a piercing coldness and unusual disapproval when she said:

“Sokka looks very pale, make sure he gets out into the sunlight and something to drink.”

That, at least, got a reaction from the Chief, who now turned abruptly to stare at Sokka instead of Zuko.

“You are right, Healer Yugoda. Come Sokka, Master Pakku and I will lead you to where we can discuss the results with some fresh air and something warm to drink.”

On a very rare moment, Sokka didn’t trust his voice, so he just nodded and let himself be led out of the room.

All he could think of was the bitter irony of a Water Tribe warrior seeking comfort in the sun’s warmth while the Fire Nation Prince was fruitlessly looking for some comfort in an icy corner under the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: blood, dissociation, suffocation
> 
> Last chapter of the year! Thank you so much for sticking with us. May 2021 be more boring than 2020


	13. Broken Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

There was a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Prince Zuko. You are doing the right thing.”

What was Uncle talking about?

Zuko couldn’t remember where he was or how he’d gotten here. It was like waking up from a dream and not knowing what was real anymore.

He looked around and the truth dawned on him, harsher and colder than the waters of the North Pole. He was chained up in an ice cell. His hands were still bleeding. The Chief was there, along with the warrior who beat him, the waterbender, the healer, and Sokka.

No. The peasant wasn’t there anymore.  _ Good riddance. _

Zuko looked up and pulled away from the waterbender’s touch.

“Don’t touch me!” Zuko wasn’t able to hide the fear in his voice. He still remembered the ice climbing around him, sealing his lips, stealing the water and blood from his body. The pain and horror he felt when his own blood was ripped out of him. It was gone now, but it could always come back.

The old master let go of him and clasped his hands behind his back. His expression was as stony and impassive as the ice around them.

“Very well. Just tell us, boy: What is the Fire Lord planning against the Northern Water Tribe?”

Zuko raised his chin and stared down at all of them. “Do your worst.”

The warrior stepped away from the wall and lunged at him. He wrapped his hands around Zuko’s throat and slammed him against the wall. Everything went black and white-hot pain exploded in the back of his head.

“Don’t play games with us, ash maker!”

“Tribesman Nukka,” a voice yelled in the distance, as if they were underwater. “Stand down!”

The man snarled and released Zuko. He fell on his hands and knees, gasping for air.

Something cold touched the back of his head, soothing the pain there. He sighed in relief before the realization hit him. He jerked back.

“You’d be saving a lot of innocent lives, boy. Fire Nation soldiers too,” said the healer.

She looked at him with her sad blue eyes in much the same way she had before. As if she pitied him. As if she weren’t helping the people who tortured him. As if she were a kind old lady giving a lost young man some advice. He wanted to believe her, to believe a good thing. He wanted it to stop hurting.  _ He wanted someone to hold him and tell him it was going to be okay. _

He knew better.

“No,” he rasped.

The old man stepped forward, towering over Zuko. “Must I remind you why you were so willing not too long ago?”

He raised his hands and water shot from the ground to meet them. Zuko cried out and scrambled back, trapped between the waterbender and the corner of the cell. Part of the water pushed his chains into the wall above his head. The rest went into his mouth and down to his lungs.

Everything was absolutely silent. Zuko couldn’t fight back. He couldn’t even scream. Dark spots splattered his vision and his head swam. His lungs were on fire. Blood dripped down his arms. After everything he’d been through, was  _ this _ how he was going to die?

“That’s enough, Master Pakku,” the Chief said calmly. He turned to leave. “One does not get paid for damaged goods.”

The water rushed out of Zuko and he slumped against the chains still holding him up.

_ Paid? _ Were they going to sell him? Who’d want t– Not sell, ransom.

“No!” he coughed.

The Chief turned back to him. Zuko knew the look in his eyes well.  _ How dare you defy me? _ He shrank back into the ice.

“No?”

“Whatever your demands, my father won’t pay the ransom,” he lied.

Was it really a lie, however? He was exiled, after all. Of course it was, it had to be. Zuko had dishonoured the Fire Lord, but he was still his son. Father loved him. He wanted him back, surely.

The Chief’s eyes widened for a moment before he composed himself into a neutral expression again.

“Is that so? What kind of father would abandon his own son?”

Zuko growled. He knew the Chief was only trying to provoke him or to coax him to their side, but the words still stung. His father wouldn’t do that. His father loved him.

“The Fire Nation must always come first.” That was the duty of the Fire Lords.

“Very well, Your Highness. We’ll see about that.”

The Chief left. The old master flicked his wrist, and the ice in his chains melted, drenching Zuko in freezing water. The one called Nukka glared at him, and both men followed the Chief out.

The healer stayed behind. She came closer, water glowing in her hand. He swatted her away.

“Get off of me.”

“Prince Zuko, I must see to your wounds.” She sounded like she was asking him to allow it, but no one needed his permission here.

“Go away. I’m fine.”

He touched the back of his head and the pain sent a wave of dizziness over him. His hand came away covered in blood.

The healer sighed. “If you insist.”

She drew her hands apart. Water froze his chains and his ankles to the ground, forcing him on all fours. Water flowed to the back of his head, and he felt it itch as it closed together. Then she did the same with his hands and fingers. He struggled against his shackles until his wrists were raw. The old woman healed them too.

Without another word, she freed him and left.

Zuko crumpled to the floor. He nearly fell into a small pool of his own blood.

They could’ve killed him today. They almost had. Twice. He hadn’t been able to stop them, hadn’t been able to do anything at all. He couldn’t even stop an old lady from healing him. They could do anything they wanted to him and there was nothing he could do about it.

He was powerless. Weak. Useless. And completely at their mercy.

Sobs cut through his shivering body. A body that didn’t belong to him anymore. There was nothing left. No inner fire, no odds-defying determination, no last sliver of hope. Nothing. Not even himself.

It made him wish the Fire Lord wouldn’t pay the ransom so he wouldn’t see what a shameful mess he had for a son. Zuko would surely be executed if he didn’t. He was a useless prisoner and he knew they wanted to do it, he could see it in that man’s eyes. The hunger, the cold, the pain… it would all be over then. It sickened him how relieved that made him feel.

It tore at him that he was such a disappointment to everyone. He couldn’t fulfil the quest his father had set him on to catch the Avatar. He’d broken his promise to Uncle of coming back. He’d failed to bring honour and victory to his people.

And his mother, what would she think of him now?

His father had been right. He’d been lucky to be born. Now that luck was running out.

  
  


The door opened with a horrible creak. Zuko shot to his feet and retreated into the corner, his heart racing in his chest. There was no point in trying to defend himself, but he wouldn’t make it easy for them.

Sokka – that duplicitous peasant, he corrected himself – entered and closed the door behind him. He approached slowly, a carefully wrapped package in his hands. How dare he come back after what’d happened?

“Get out,” Zuko spat.

“Zuko, I–”

“LEAVE!”

Sparks flew out his mouth and nose. It startled him.

The peasant recoiled too, looking at him with wide blue eyes. He put his hands up in a gesture of peace, but Zuko wasn’t buying it. It was all an act, just as he had suspected in the beginning. Why had he fallen for it?

“Listen, Zuko, I didn’t know th–”

“You didn’t know?!” He grabbed the other boy by the collar of his warm parka and pushed him weakly against the wall. His entire body shook with the effort. “Where did you think all the blood and bruises came from?”

“I didn’t think it was this bad,” the peasant whimpered.

“You expect me to believe you?” More sparks and a wisp of smoke.

Zuko wanted to believe. He wanted it so badly. He needed it. But he’d seen the peasant’s true face and he couldn’t go back to pretending they weren’t enemies, that he wasn’t a prisoner to extract information from.

The boy stared at the ground. He seemed sick. “No.”

That sudden moment of honesty disarmed Zuko. He was too tired to be angry. In fact, he was too tired to feel much of anything at all. He let go of the boy and sank down in his thin blanket.

“I thought you were...” What? Good? Kind?  _ My friend? _ “... decent. But you’re just part of their wretched tricks. Did you think I’d tell you anything because you were nice to me?”

It was exactly the kind of thing Azula would do. But she would’ve waited until after she got what she needed to start the torture.

The peasant knelt in front of Zuko, careful not to touch the blood that was already freezing, and opened the bundle he’d brought. The smell of food made Zuko’s stomach growl, but he ignored it. He didn’t look at the water pouch or the warm blanket either.

“I’m just honestly trying to help, Zuko. What they’re doing to you isn’t okay.”

“Why don’t you speak up, then?” he snapped.

That was what Zuko had done. All it got him was half his face burned by his father in an Agni Kai and exile until he captured the Avatar. The poor soldiers had probably still been used as cannon fodder anyway. Yet, Zuko couldn’t bring himself to regret it. It had been the right thing to do. He couldn’t have stood idly by while the generals sacrificed those men as if it meant nothing.

What happened to someone who questioned the Chief in the Northern Water Tribe? A dunk in their ice-cold waters? Lose a few fingers or toes to frostbite? Banishment until they killed the Fire Lord?

Either the boy was too much of a coward to do what had to be done or he was lying. Zuko had seen the boy stand alone in defence of his tribe at the South Pole against an entire Fire Nation ship. He was no coward.

“Me? I’m no one. No one cares what I think. They would just kick us out and Aang and Katara would lose their only waterbending master,” the peasant blurted out.

He seemed to realize his mistake because he immediately covered his mouth. Not that it mattered much. Who was Zuko gonna tell that the Avatar was desperate for a teacher?

“You know where your priorities lie,” he spat, turning his back to the peasant. “Go and take that with you. Don’t. Come. Back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: blood, dissociation, suffocation, non-consensual healing


	14. Doing the Right Thing

Sokka had waited until after Aang had fallen asleep to come to her. She’d been expecting him. He’d been a wreck of nervous energy ever since he’d gotten home and he’d barely eaten anything at dinner. Even Aang had noticed something was wrong, but Sokka had tried to pretend otherwise.

If he was hiding something that bad from Aang, it could only be one thing: the Fire Nation prince.

Without a word, the two of them sneaked out of the room they all shared and stepped into the cold night air. It was too risky to stay inside.

The sky was clear, and a full moon was shining so brightly it almost seemed to fade the stars around it. Katara felt a gentle pull to it that she couldn’t explain, but it was the same feeling that drew her to the water.

Sokka was rubbing his gloved hands together and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. Her heart sank. What’d happened?

“I… Chief Arnook asked me to go with him today,” he finally said after a long moment.

Everything came rushing out of him as he paced in front of her. The questions, the fear, the ice. The blood. And the way the prince had asked his father to forgive him.

She swallowed the urge to vomit. Disgust and anger fought for a place in her heart. This wasn’t waterbending, the sacred art of her ancestors and her tribe. This was a  _ perversion _ of it. Waterbending wasn’t meant to cause pain and suffering, it was about healing and life. Master Pakku had defiled it to hurt someone. A boy that couldn’t be older than Sokka.

The rage bubbled inside her and she could hear a crack growing in the wall next to them. Katara stomped away. She didn’t care about losing her waterbending master. She didn’t want that vile man as her teacher nor could she stay as the guest of the chief who’d sanctioned such behaviour.

Her brother grabbed her wrist.

“Katara, wait!”

She whirled around. “I can’t, Sokka! What kind of people are we if we let this happen? We might as well throw him to the snow wolves! I can’t do it, not even to save the world.”

He pulled both her hands into his.

“I know,” he said, a glint in his eyes. “I have a plan.”

  
  


It was easier to find the Prince’s cell now that she knew where she was going instead of just following her brother. She moved through the canals and inside the walls, invisible to anyone walking the corridors. Including any guards, or Master Pakku himself.

It seemed wrong to simply burst in his cell like that. In a way, it was his space after all. Katara entered the cell next to his and knocked on the shared wall before melting it away.

Zuko immediately jumped back, wide eyes focused on her.

The ice at his feet was dark red. She stifled a gag.

“G-g-get away from me!” he shrieked.

“Zuko, I’m not–”

She looked at him, truly looked at him, and the horror silenced her. The blown pupils that pushed his irises into barely more than a golden rim. The violent tremors that wracked his body. The broken pitch of his voice. It was the reaction of most of her people to the sight of Fire Nation ships on their shores. Pure terror.

Katara didn’t want to be part of a people that inspired that much fear. It was one of the so many things she hated about the Fire Nation. She didn’t want to be like them.

What could she say to the prince? Any words of peace would be meaningless now, after everything her people had put him through.

No, not her people. The Northerners were nothing like her. This was not who she was.

She still had to help Zuko. Only she didn’t know how.

Katara took a step forward. He flinched.

“D-don’t touch me,” he commanded, he begged.

“I won’t.” She stepped back and raised her hands, but it only made him wince.

This was not what Sokka had described. He’d told her the prince had been furious at him. There had been smoke and sparks. Perhaps the betrayal had been stronger than the fear with her brother. He’d been the one helping Zuko while she’d only just found out. She hadn’t been back to see him. She’d been busy with Aang and…

Waterbending practise.

She let out a choked gasp.

Zuko was afraid of  _ her _ . Because she was a waterbender, like Master Pakku.

“N-n-n-no, no,” she stammered. “I’m not– I’m not like that. Please, I’m not–”

Katara stopped herself. The prince sank shivering in the corner, looking at her like a young otter-penguin in the face of a tiger-seal.

Tears stung in her eyes and she blinked them away. She didn’t have the right to cry, not when she was the villain of the story.

“What can I do, Zuko?” she asked softly. “What can I do to show you that I’m not– I won’t–”

“Stop lying,” he said, a hint of fire in his eyes. The accusation in his tone was harsher than a slap, and she looked away. “I’m so tired of lies and acts and tricks. I’m not gonna tell you anything about the Fire Nation’s plans. Just do what you came here to do and leave.”

She sighed and looked him straight in the eye.

“I don’t care about any plans. I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to help you. My brother didn’t betray you. So just wait a little longer,” she said. “We’re gonna get you out of here.”


	15. A Man with a Plan

_ “I thought you were decent,” _ No matter what Sokka tried to focus on while waiting for Katara to return, those words the Prince had spoken pushed their way to the front of his mind over and over again. Or rather, the words he  _ hadn’t  _ spoken. Because the pause that had been there before Zuko had settled on calling him decent had held room for so many words. So many terms that brought just as many different emotions to the young warrior, now that he had time to think about what had transpired the past day.

Sokka didn’t know what words Zuko’s mind had filled the short pause with, but he had a good amount of his own that would fit in perfectly. Somehow, the realization that he’d come to see Zuko as somebody equal, not yet an ally, but definitely not an enemy either, wasn’t really as startling as it should have been.

Granted, they hadn’t talked much, and definitely about nothing personal, but he’d seen and met Zuko without his mask of rage and anger. And really, that was all it was. A mask. Sure, it would have been nice if that mask hadn’t had to be ripped off through torture, fear and pain first. But the outcome was the same.

And Sokka had managed to slap that mask back on with some extra glue within a few minutes. 

He let out a deep sigh and slumped just a little further forward on the ice ledge he was sitting on. The boomerang he’d pretended to practise with, in case anybody wandered upon him, lay long forgotten on his knees.

Distractedly, he followed the lines and symbols on the carved wood with his fingers. It had been a gift from his dad on his last birthday before the men had set out to join the war. Not one practise had gone by where Sokka hadn’t wished for his father to be there with him and teach him. He didn’t really need the knowledge, not anymore, at least. But he longed for his parent to be there and guide him, to simply have somebody to share his progress with and also his setbacks.

Now, Sokka found himself longing for his father’s advice for quite a different reason but with no less intensity. The plan he’d presented Katara with had not really been thought through. Really, it was more of an emergency idea, a way to do  _ some _ damage control. He’d known that there was no way Katara would back down from doing something  _ right there and then _ , not after she had made it quite clear how little she cared if she and Aang were to lose their waterbending masters now.

His sister’s selflessness and engagement filled Sokka with shame. Not because she was going against their sister tribe without a second thought when needed, but because  _ he wasn’t _ . Zuko had been right to question him when Sokka hadn’t even tried to say something. And he also knew that there was nothing now with which he could justify his decisions. Not even to himself.

Maybe, Sokka decided, he couldn’t yet bring the Prince the news of his rescue, but he sure would give him an apology. And some food again. If he’d take it this time.

He leapt off the ledge and started to make his way back towards the city’s centre. Maybe he’d even meet Katara on his way and find out how her meeting had gone before he’d go to see Zuko without knowing how he’d reacted to her.

He didn’t expect her to succeed but the imminent failure was probably necessary for her to calm down, accept that she’d have to have some more patience, and then listen to his real plan.

Which was… currently still under construction.

Sometimes Sokka had the impression that there wasn’t anybody anymore who Katara would just  _ listen to _ and follow. Which was a good trait, he figured, to some degree. But it’d be really great if her persistence could once in a while acknowledge the brilliance of his plans and just stay down. Why couldn’t she just listen to him? Everybody had somebody they listened to, after all. He himself listened to his father, soldiers to their commanding officers, those to their rulers. Hell, even Prince Zuko had always seemed to hold some respect for what that old man – his uncle, wasn’t he? – had to say.

Sokka stopped dead in his tracks and came to a slithering halt.

The uncle! How had he been so stupid? There had not been a single time they had encountered Zuko without that old man being somewhere nearby. And if the prince hadn’t somehow managed to not only be banished from his own nation but his ship too, then the old man would surely be somewhere not too far away.

With a plan finally forming in his head, Sokka took off through the streets towards the palace with new vigour.

Unfortunately, he didn’t meet Katara on his way to the cells. Which was to be expected, now that he thought about it, since she’d probably use her super-secret ice tunnels (and  _ no _ , Sokka was  _ not  _ jealous of that stupid water magic trick, he could  _ sneak _ after all). Fortunately, he didn’t encounter anybody else either to who he might have had to explain where he was going and what he was doing.

He only stopped for a moment to grab some dried meat and bread, and once more when he reached the right door to listen and make sure nobody was in there. There wasn’t, thank the spirits, and Sokka quickly pushed the door open to slip inside the cell room.

“Your sister at least had the decency to  _ knock  _ before barging through my  _ wall _ .”

Oh well, at least the raging fury he had received last time had now simmered down to cold animosity. Then the words registered.

“Ah…sorry? I can go back outside and announce myself and then…”

A heavy sigh interrupted him. “Don’t bother, peasant.”

Somehow, Zuko looked even more tired and beaten than he had the day before. Had they interrogated him again? But Sokka could not see any new wounds. In fact, he could not see any wounds at all, which was a stark contrast to the pattern of purple, blue and red previously decorating the firebender’s white skin.

But when Sokka studied the prince’s huddled form in the corner more closely, he realized that what altered him wasn’t a new injury or lack thereof, but the lack of… life. He couldn’t describe it any other way. The way Zuko sat there in the ice, hugging his knees to his chest and staring with dull eyes at a point somewhere over Sokka’s shoulder, held no fire anymore, no energy or will power.

The temptation to jump right into planning was big, but Sokka knew he wouldn’t be able to live in peace with himself until he had tried to right what he had wronged.

Not wanting to loom over the other boy, he sank to the ground, sitting opposite of Zuko a good five steps away. The prince’s eyes didn’t move from where they had been staring at the far wall. Maybe they weren’t really looking at anything.

“Listen. You were right. I should have said something. I should have spoken up. And I am sorry and really ashamed that I haven’t. So yeah, I am sorry…” By the end of his admission, Sokka’s eyes were glued to the ground at the prince’s feet. He should probably look at Zuko to see his reaction, but the burning shame locked his eyes firmly to his frozen element.

“What would  _ my _ forgiveness be worth to you?” There was still no anger. Sokka began to worry.

“A lot, actually. I… as you said, I should have said something, and I am sorry that I didn’t. And if my words don’t count anymore, then my actions will. I will get you out of here, Zuko, and help you escape.” By the end of his declaration, Sokka had gotten back enough determination to meet Zuko’s eyes once more. And almost cheered at the cautious respect and  _ life _ he was met with. Maybe his words  _ did _ count after all.

“So, the plan’s details are still in progress, but I figured that you’d have to come here somehow and probably with your Uncle, so I guess if you could tell us where your ship is, then we’d at least already know where we’d have to bring you to after busting you out of here?”

The respect in Zuko’s eyes went up in flames, morphing into mistrust and almost anger in an instant.

“How stupid do you think I am, peasant? Do you really expect me to sell out the Dragon of the West to the Northern Water Tribe because of an apology?”

“The Dragon of the…? No, Zuko!” Sokka hurried to amend, waving his hands in surrender once more. “I swear I am just trying to come up with a plan to free you. I don’t care about the Fire Nation’s plans…” At Zuko’s level stare, he quickly added, “...anymore. Not right now, at least. And neither do I care about what the Water Tribe wants. These things are just not the priority anymore, ok?”

“Whatever.”

It wasn’t exactly an  _ Apology accepted and I believe you _ but Sokka was relieved to see some of the tension leaving the prince’s shoulders once more.

Well, there was one more way to test whether he’d managed to get back near safe ice with Zuko.

He held out the wrapped meats and bread to the other boy.

“I brought you food, want some?”

Zuko took it.


	16. The Ship

Sokka had told her he had a plan. When he explained it to her, it was more incoherent gibberish and wild gestures than actual words that made sense. But Katara had learned to trust her brother when it came to plans. He might sound like a dork describing them, but they came through. Most of the time.

This particular plan hit a snag on its very first step.

That was a problem, but Sokka’s plans were often a work in progress during execution anyway.

They had to rescue Zuko from Chief Arnook’s clutches or Master Pakku would keep hurting him, and no one deserved that. Not even the Fire Nation Prince who’d been the monster in so many of her nightmares.

Then they had to get him out of the North Pole. He couldn’t come with them. After all, he was their enemy and he’d chased them across the world trying to capture Aang. So the  _ plan _ was to get him back on his ship.

The  _ snag _ was that the Prince refused to tell them how to find it.

It was understandable that he didn’t trust them. He had plenty of reasons. She didn’t trust him either, but she didn’t need to. He couldn’t do anything against them, not in his current condition, and when his safety depended on them.

That might change after he got back to his ship and recovered. Katara would rather have to run from him again than to leave him in that cell, knowing what Master Pakku and the other man were doing to him. It wasn’t a sensible decision, but it was the right one.

If the Prince had gotten to the North Pole on his ship, it would’ve been seen and the alarm would’ve been raised across the entire city. So they guessed he’d come on a smaller, more discreet boat and landed somewhere beyond the walls, even if he wouldn’t admit even that.

After he left, the ship could’ve gone anywhere. Maybe it stayed close, waiting for him to come back with the Avatar, or maybe there was a rendezvous point somewhere else. The Prince could even have sent it back home for back up, for all they knew, but they hoped he hadn’t.

Instead of simply taking Zuko to his ship when they figured how to break him out, they had to  _ look _ for it first. Because  _ His Highness _ wouldn’t tell them where it was.

At least they had Appa.

Aang was training with Master Pakku and the other students. Sokka and Katara hadn’t told him anything yet. Aang was the Avatar, the master of all elements, and a sweet boy, but he was not good at hiding how he really felt. If he knew, he’d give it all away, and they needed the secrecy for now.

Somehow, Aang knew something was up. He hadn’t said anything, but he had asked them about Appa. Like he knew they’d taken the bison for a ride. He’d asked about her lessons with Master Yugoda, her excuse to skip practise with Master Pakku. Aang might be naïve, but he wasn’t stupid. They couldn’t hide this from him much longer.

Sokka and Katara were flying far above the city, but not so high they touched the clouds. Katara took the reins while her brother had spread a map with a grid drawn on it on Appa’s saddle. They’d crossed out a few squares after flying the entire previous day and most of this morning.

“We’re never gonna find that damn ship,” Sokka half-sighed, half-yelled.

Katara looked over her shoulder to see her brother lean on the edge of the saddle with a defeated expression on his face.

“We can’t lose hope, Sokka,” she said. “I doubt that uncle of his would be far. He wouldn’t leave his nephew alone in enemy territory.”

“But he let him come on a dangerous mission.” She heard Sokka draw another cross on the map. “Why did they send the  _ prince _ anyway? Why not someone… you know, not the son of the Fire Lord?”

They were flying along the coast of the city. The aerial view allowed them to see beyond rocks and nooks that would make for great cover when seen from the wall. Yet, there was still nothing.

How far could the old man be? Or, if Zuko had really taken a small boat, where was it?

“They’re after the avatar, so they probably just sent their best firebender. The Fire Lord’s son.”

“Wouldn’t the best firebender be the old master with tons of experience who’s also the Fire Lord’s  _ brother _ ? Zuko called him the Dragon of the West, which sounds badass, so he’s gotta be badass too,” Sokka said. Katara opened her mouth to answer, but she sensed he was on one of his tirades. She said nothing and let him continue. “But he is an old man, so maybe he couldn’t handle the harshness of the poles.” He humphed. “Not everybody is as tough as the Water Tribes.”

Katara rolled her eyes, even though Sokka couldn’t see it. It was not that she didn’t agree – their people lived where no one else could and that said something about who they were – but she didn’t want his warrior pride to get to his head. He’d already said he was “kind of like a prince” in the Southern Water Tribe once already. Or maybe that was just around Princess Yue.

It was weird to watch her brother fall head over heels for someone. It had never happened before, but then again, there weren’t any other girls their age in their village. Now that they were travelling with Aang and meeting so many new people, it was first Suki and now Yue. It was sweet, but it also turned Sokka into more of an idiot than usual. That worried her a bit.

“What’s next after we find the ship?” she asked, in part to finally understand the plan and in part to reassure Sokka that they would find the ship. She was reassuring herself a little too. “How do we get Zuko out? We have to do it  _ soon _ .”

“We will. Then we get on Appa and bring him to the ship.”

It sounded simple enough. Katara saw the problem in that.

“But how do we get him from the cells to Appa? We can’t just land Appa next to the palace. Everyone would see us.”

“I’m working on it!” Sokka squeaked. She didn’t need to see it, or feel the air currents like Aang, to know he was waving his arms around. “I mean, I’ve been scouting the city, but I don’t know it well enough and I don’t have the time to explore it.” A pause that filled Katara with dread. Nothing good came out of Sokka’s pauses in the middle of an explanation. “So I was thinking we could use your water-sneaking trick.”

“It’s not a trick, it’s waterbending!” she shouted, startling Appa. She patted him in apology. “I can only go underground where there are water canals and I can only move inside the walls if they’re thick enough. Like in the palace. Not in the rest of the city. Unless you want to find yourself in the middle of someone’s dining room.”

“Ok, ok. I’ll think of something else.”

They were moving further along the coast now, away from the city. Zuko’s ship seemed small compared to other Fire Nation ships they’d seen, but it was still a ship. It would be easy to spot, so it might be hiding in a more remote area.

“How come you don’t know the streets by heart yet?” Katara asked, still miffed about the “water-sneaking trick” comment. “You’ve been taking all sorts of walks through the city.”

“What are you talking about?” He was honestly confused. Love really turned him into an idiot.

She almost wiggled her eyebrows before remembering she had her back to him.

“With Princess Yue.”

Katara couldn’t resist turning around to peak at the blush on her brother’s face. He was blushing, yes, but his mouth was slightly open, his eyes wide, and his mind far, far away. It was his realization face.

She waited.

“That’s it! We could ask Yue!”

Oh, no. The idiocy levels were dangerously high now. But she felt sorry for him too. He seriously liked the princess.

Katara turned forward again. She couldn’t bear to see his reaction to what she was about to say.

“Sokka, we are going against her father and her tribe. Betraying them. She won’t help us.”

“No, you don’t know her like I do. Yue is– Hey! What’s that?”

She turned to see what he was talking about, but Sokka was already climbing on Appa’s head. His finger was pointing at what seemed like driftwood beaten by the waves against the shore.

She nudged Appa to go down. There was nowhere for the bison to land among the rocks, so he just floated in the water.

Whatever it was, it was surrounded by turtle-seals. Sokka and Katara jumped to a rock to take a closer look. It was wood, as they’d thought, but it had a smooth surface and a regular cut. It had surely been a boat plank in its previous life.

“Zuko landed  _ here _ ? We’re in the middle of nowhere!” Sokka said. “It would take days to walk to the city.”

Katara studied the landscape. Just a long wide stretch of ice, snow, wind, and nothingness. It was anything but welcoming. Why here?

“What did Chief Arnook tell you?”

“Not much. Just that some hunters found him. But they wouldn’t have come this far. He must’ve walked for days to get anywhere near hunting ground.”

He was impressed. Katara was too. They’d been born and reared in the snow and ice. They knew how deadly and unforgiving it could be. She hated to admit it, but the prince of the Fire Nation was a little impressive.

She waved at her brother.

“C’mon, let’s get back on Appa. The ship must be somewhere around here.”

Katara wasn’t wrong. Finding the small wooden boat had narrowed their search. Once up in the air, they saw a subtle wisp of smoke, just beyond a promontory.

Appa kept a safe distance as they rounded the cliffside. The crew didn’t know they were helping their prince and it might attack them.

What they found was not what they were expecting. It was barely big enough to be called a ship, even smaller than the Prince’s had been. There was no way the crew could fit there. But there were no other vessels in sight. This was it.

Katara and Sokka exchanged a glance. Where was Zuko’s ship? And where was his crew? There was something wrong here. They both knew it, they both felt it deep inside their bones. The only person who could give them some answers was barely speaking to them.

With that sinking feeling in her heart, Katara tugged Appa’s reins gently.

“Let’s go home, buddy,” she said as they turned around. “We found what we came here for.”


	17. The Great Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

Alright, so, something was up. Something that, on the one hand, Sokka had no knowledge of whatsoever and, on the other hand, might influence and even crash his finely crafted plans. He  _ hated _ the Fire Nation.

Why couldn’t they, for once, do what he wanted them to do? Like, you know, speaking to him when he wanted to rescue somebody or not randomly changing vessels from a decent warship to a small lump of metal.

Honestly, Sokka couldn’t care less if the Prince would leave this place on a royal cruiser or a makeshift raft, as long as he was with his uncle, cared for and away from the Northerners’ clutches. That was a lie, of course. Sokka  _ did _ care.

But what really made his mind’s gears screech was the unknown whereabouts of Zuko’s bigger ship. The one that, while not impressively big, still had a fully functional naval military arsenal.

Something was definitely going on, but Sokka knew his priorities. Keeping an eye on the currents of the war was more important, for sure, but right now, getting the Fire Nation Prince out of this cell and away from torture and harm was more urgent.

Reminding himself of this plan, Sokka slowly walked alongside one of the many canals that lead from the palace in the city’s centre to the icy depths of the Northern Sea. Nervously glancing around, he clutched the wrinkled paper in his hands even harder, fiddling with a torn corner. Had he not worn gloves, his sweaty palms would have rendered the note illegible by now.

Not that it would have been a problem. Sokka knew it’s short content by heart.  _ Meet me tomorrow evening when the sun first touches the sea. I’ll wait at our bridge.  _ The note wasn’t signed, but that had not been necessary, as Princess Yue had swiftly pressed the paper into his hands when she had passed him the day before in the halls. It had been the first time it had barely bothered Sokka that Hahn had been walking at the Princess’ other side. Because, the moment Yue had walked past, he had known that, at that moment, all her focus had solely been on him. Consequently, his heart had done a somersault in his chest when he’d seen that Yue had called the bridge, that they’d had their first  _ date _ at,  _ their _ bridge.

Even Katara’s insistence that she’d probably only done that to stay anonymous in case the note was read by somebody else could not dampen his excitement. The reminder of why he had asked Yue for a meeting in the first place, however, could.

What if she thought they’d just meet for a nice evening just to find out he’d need her help? What if she ended up feeling used? Or worse, what if she didn’t believe him?  _ Spirits _ , why could he never think of a proper plan whenever it came to Yue? This wasn’t even about him or, or… _ them _ . It was about somebody else, entirely.

His hands fiddling, his mind swirling, he almost didn’t see the hooded figure standing at the post of the bridge. With a startled shout, he came to a skittering halt just in front of the other person.

“Good evening! I am just going… somewhere… for a walk. And have to cross  _ that _ bridge.” He pointed over the other’s shoulder with his rushed explanation. “So, if you’d let me pass, that would be wonderfully nice of you.” He finished with a small bow.

“Mind if I accompany you?”

Sokka slapped his forehead with a groan.

But the sweet giggle with which Princess Yue finally lowered the hood of her parka washed away all his embarrassment.

Once again, Sokka had to remind himself why exactly he met her today, and once again, Yue solved his predicament with ease.

“You wanted to talk to me? You sounded very serious. Shall we go for a walk through the city?”

Nodding in agreement, Sokka motioned for her to lead the way. She knew the streets better than he did. That was, after all, the reason for her involvement in his plans.

While Sokka knew exactly  _ what _ he wanted to say, he found himself at a loss  _ how _ to word his request. How could he even start to broach the subject?

“You know the streets here pretty well, don’t you?” He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible while purposely ignoring how close Princess Yue was walking. If he’d just stumble a bit to his left, their arms might touch.

“I do. While my father made sure that I’d always stay on the main roads and with my guards, there were some occasions when I’d get lost, on purpose, and wander the city alone until some guard would catch up with me.” Towards the end of her admission, Yue’s voice had turned into a hesitant whisper, as if she wasn’t sure anymore whether it was a good thing to tell. At Sokka’s impressed stare she relaxed immediately and even allowed herself a small smile.

“Wow, that’s awesome!” Sokka saw an opening and he took it. “But, wasn’t your father furious? I mean you didn’t only go against his but also the Chief’s orders.”

“No, he saw the fault with the guards, not with me. And whenever I then stepped in for them and said that it  _ was _ my fault, and not the guards’, my father would let it go altogether.”

“Wow, that was very brave of you.”

“Do you really think so?”

Sokka couldn’t help the frown that tightened his forehead. “Well, of course you were brave. What else would you call doing what is right even when it might anger your father or mean a disadvantage for yourself?”

Yue’s already slow steps came to a halt and she turned to face him, just looking at him for a moment before her brilliant smile brightened her face once more.

“Thank you, Sokka.”

Sokka was positive he was blushing furiously now. Tui and La, hopefully, Yue blamed it on the cold. Yet, a small stupid part in him hoped that she didn’t and still stayed with him and smiled.

“I am just telling the truth.”

And just like that, his own words dumped his feelings into a bucket of ice.

“What is it, Sokka?” Yue must have noticed his sudden mood change.

Tucking at his gloves, Sokka suddenly had to force himself to look her in the eyes.

“You were right, Princess Yue. Your father  _ is _ hiding something from you. But not only from you, but from almost everybody here.”

“But not from you.” It wasn’t a question but not an accusation either, so Sokka felt encouraged to continue. 

“No, not from me.” And just like when he’d told Katara, everything came rushing out of him. Him identifying the Fire Nation Prince for the Tribe, him aiding said prince in secret, the gruesome torture he had been forced to witness, and finally, after a short hesitation, them planning to get Zuko out of there.

The whole time, Princess Yue stared at him, listening intently. With every sentence, her eyes glistered and her mouth widened in shock a bit more. By the time he was finished, her trembling hands had come up to cover her mouth. “That is horrible. That is absolutely  _ wrong. _ ”

Sokka did a double-take. “Wait. You believe me? Just like that?”

“As I said, I noticed a change in my father’s but also in Master Pakku’s and Master Yugoda’s behaviour. And in yours, of course. It makes a lot of sense now. Of course, I believe you!”

It might have been the first time Sokka had ever heard Yue raise her voice. He wasn’t sure how he felt about him being the cause of it.

“I take it there’s a reason you are telling me this now. Other than confirming me in my suspicions concerning my father?”

Sokka looked at his snow-covered boots in shame. Time after time, he had told himself that he wasn’t using her. It had, after all, been his own idea to bring Yue into the plan. Yet, he couldn’t shake the sudden guilt that pressed down in his stomach.

“No. I mean, yes, there is. I just don’t want you to think that I only wanted to meet with you for this reason. I-” A sole glove fell between them in the snow and a warm hand on his face stopped him mid-sentence.

“I know that, Sokka. Believe me, I know. And, it’s the same for me. But as I understand it, the prince’s rescue is of high importance right now. What can I do?”

With that, Sokka’s plan morphed from a vague idea to a solid schedule within the hour it took them to walk all the passages and ways the Princess showed him and back to the guest rooms Sokka was staying in with Aang and Katara.

Entering their bedroom with a swift knock, he found Katara perched on her bed with some scrolls laying open before her.

In one fluid motion, she sat up and slid off the bed, standing before him with a hopeful and excited expression on her face. “And? How did it go?” 

Glancing through the room to make sure they were indeed alone, Sokka asked: “Where’s Aang?” 

That earned him a quick roll of his sister’s eyes. “He’s still at the training grounds with Master Pakku. He wanted to show Aang something about the moon. Sokka,  _ how did it go _ ?”

“Good, good.” But Sokka’s muttering was rather accompanying his re-thinking of the plan instead of answering her question. There should still be enough time. It could work. It  _ had to _ work.

“Alright, Katara, do you have some warm spare clothes here? And the medical stuff? Yue’s waiting outside. She can’t get him out of the city, but she’s shown me a way to get here undetected. We have to go  _ now _ !”

For a moment, Katara just stared at him. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before her surprise quickly hardened into determination as she grabbed a pouch from the table, slipped into her parka and ripped a thick blanket from Aang’s bed.

“Let’s go.”

With fast steps, they made their way to the palace, careful to stay hidden from any watchful eyes as much as possible. Yue was following them some steps behind, using different alleys. They had agreed that it would be best if they’d enter the palace separately. It would raise less suspicion if they were seen together inside the palace, where they could just as well have run into each other by accident.

Just as hoped, they entered the main halls of the palace without interruption and Sokka led Katara to the storage room where they’d wait for Yue. Just thinking about the last time he’d been in there with the Princess made his cheeks burn and Sokka prayed to Tui and La that Katara was too focused on their mission to wonder why they had picked this room.

“Sokka, this is crazy!” Her whispers seemed to echo in the otherwise utterly silent room. “There’s no way we can hide an escaped prisoner in our rooms until we can get him to his ship.”

“ _ You _ were the one who insisted on the urgency! Do you think I don’t know it’s going to be hard? But there will be a way. I will think of something. Besides, we really don’t have much more time. And I mean not only because we want to spare Prince Zuko any more pain.” 

For a moment he faltered. With a start he had realized while talking, that he hadn’t told Katara about the ransom note the Northerners were planning to send the Fire Lord. 

As expected, his revelation was met with an exasperated “What!?” Katara looked like she might have thrown ice daggers with her eyes if she could. “Oh, so letting Zuko in their clutches was not only constantly endangering his life but also ours?! And you forgot to mention that?! Chief Arnook’s plan is crazy. We can’t let – ”

“What is going on here?”

In a heartbeat, Sokka whirled around, his machete halfway drawn. Beside him, Katara slid easily into a bending stance, water pouch at ready.

Both let out a heavy breath as they came face to face with Yue. 

“Voices carry well in the palace.” For a moment, Sokka’s brain was stuck on the fact that Yue’s face looked incredibly cute when she frowned before it caught up with the content of her words.

“Sorry. Nothing, we are fine. Right?” He shot Katara an unsure glance. 

His sister gave a short yet surprisingly graceful bow. “Yes. Thank you very much for your assistance in this, Princess Yue.”

With a smile, Yue gave a short bow back. “No need to thank me. If anything, I would have to thank Sokka, for helping me see the truth and not keeping me in the dark or excluding me like all the other men in my life tend to.”

Not for the first time, Sokka wished he was born a bender, too. If only for the chance that he could melt himself through the ground right there and then. He was a  _ man in Yue’s life _ . Tui and La, if he looked at her now, he was sure he would either grin like an idiot or say something utterly inappropriate. Probably both.

Instead, he tried to give his voice as much authority and determination as he could muster. “Thank me when we’re done here. We still have to get the prisoner out of here.” Without waiting for an answer or looking back, he pushed the door open and stepped outside.

The halls Yue led them through were vacant. They passed many more doors, getting smaller and more unassuming with each step until, suddenly, they came to a stop in front of a blank ice wall.

“What are we doing here, Sokka?” Katara murmured at him, barely moving her lips. 

It was Yue who answered her, though. “Sokka told me about your extraordinary bending skills. Behind this wall lies the main corridor that leads to the prison cells and if we enter it at this point, we should have already passed all the guards stationed there. So, we figured you could just open a doorway for us?”

A soft smile spread across Katara’s face at the praise before she turned towards the wall once more. With one smooth circle of her arms, the ice parted in front of them, seemingly spiralling in on itself, before opening a hole just big enough for all of them to step through. Well, almost big enough. Sokka noted with not a small amount of pride that he had to dip his head to fit through. And he wasn’t the only one who noticed, if the raised eyebrow Katara gave him, when he straightened at the other side, was anything to go by.

No longer daring to talk, Yue motioned them to follow her as she swiftly walked down the corridor. It was exactly that silence that let Sokka stop in his tracks not a minute later. There, very faint but unmistakably  _ there _ , were footsteps behind them. And they were approaching. Exchanging an alarmed look with the two girls, he motioned to go faster, but Yue held up a hand and shook her head. Sokka could see her concern. The way they were taking led nowhere else but the cells. So, whoever neared them had the same destination as them.

Suddenly, Yue pointed at Katara, then at the wall to their right. Did she want them to hide in there? But Sokka knew how long it could take for whoever was going to Zuko to leave again. Furthermore, it was highly preferable that they got the prince out  _ before _ another interrogation took place. Before he could shake his head or say anything, the ice under his boots moved and suddenly he found himself standing inside the wall, his sister pressed to his side.

“Yue! Katara, what are you – “ A gloved hand was pressed over his mouth. 

“Shh, we can still be heard, maybe even seen if they look closely.” 

At her words, Sokka stilled immediately. He wanted to protest, but he realized that at this point, his worries for Yue had overruled his intelligence. Which was… disconcerting, to say the least. Yue was the only one who could distract somebody without raising suspicions. She was their only chance to buy them some time.

All he could do was wait.

Not a minute later, the footsteps had gotten loud and clear, even through the wall of ice, and Yue took a few steps towards whoever was coming.

Their footsteps stopped. “Good evening, Princess Yue, what brings you here this late?”

“Good evening, Tribesman Nuka.” For a moment, Sokka’s breath stopped.  _ Shit _ , this was not good, this was so not good. If  _ that _ guy was making his way to Zuko’s cell, they definitely had to get there before he did. 

He had lost focus in the conversation going on and the next thing he heard made everything better and worse all at once. “…I was just making my way down to the cells. I had a job to do there this afternoon and forgot my knife.” Sokka bristled. A job to do. What monster would call torturing a teenager a  _ job _ ? Not even the pride and admiration for Yue’s smooth acting could dampen his anger. Any last shreds of doubt whether he was doing the right thing were gone in an instant.

With shallow breaths, they waited and listened as Yue explained to the man that she’d been looking for a specific guard and since she hadn’t found him yet, she was increasingly worried.

It didn’t take long for the tribesman to agree and accompany her in her search. It irked Sokka to no end to see Yue play such a defenceless and clueless role. And then it irked him, even more, when he realized that that was exactly what was expected of women here. Katara had been absolutely right to challenge the Northerner’s beliefs and by extent also his own. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud.

As soon as the sound of Yue’s and Nuka’s footsteps had faded, Katara released them from the wall, and without words needed, they both ran towards the prison cell.

They didn’t have much time now.

His blood rushing in his ears, Sokka sprinted down the last few steps to the cell door, Katara just behind him. He slammed the door open and waited just long enough to make sure they were alone before rushing into the cell where Zuko had jumped up into a defensive stance.

Or tried to.

Sokka repressed the sudden urge to look away or scream. Apparently, Master Yugoda had not been here yet after the watertribesman’s last visit. Shit. This was not what they had planned for.

Forcing himself to look at Zuko’s wild eyes instead of the numerous red-rimmed slits in his clothes and the blood crusted cuts underneath, Sokka held his arms up as a sign of peace. “We are here to get you out, Zuko. Don’t be scared.”

At Zuko’s snarl, Katara stepped up to him, copying Sokka’s slow motions. “He’s telling the truth, Zuko. As we’ve promised.” 

She glanced at the shackles around his wrists and ankles and frowned. Sokka wanted to ask what was wrong when it dawned on him. She’d have to waterbend in order to free the chains from the ice. They did neither have the time nor the means to free Zuko from his bounds right there and then.

Zuko hadn’t said a word. Neither had he moved. He was still standing in a half-crouch, seemingly ready to defend or strike. Sokka could see his legs shaking. There was no other way. “I am sorry Zuko, but Katara has to bend in order to get the chains free of the ice, ok?” He waited for a response. None came.

Briefly, Sokka closed his eyes, wishing he didn’t have to make such decisions. “Hurry up, Katara. We can amend that later. But everything’s over if the guy comes back and we’re caught.”

At his stern tone, his sister nodded back with just as much apprehension in her eyes before she turned around and extended her arms.

Then, she pulled.

Three things happened simultaneously. The chains came free, clanking to the ground, Katara stepped forward to take Zuko by the arm and Zuko… Zuko screamed. Sokka rushed forward, almost colliding with Katara who had jumped back with a shout of her own, and threw the blanket Katara had brought over the distressed firebender.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Then, all energy seemed to leave Zuko’s body and he slumped to the ground, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself in the process.

“I am not a scared hawk.” He spat from where he now sat at Sokka’s feet.

Knowing he would have enough time to tease him about that later, Sokka refrained from commenting altogether and slowly extended his hand instead. “Can you walk? We have to hurry. Nuka’s going to come back soon, he – “ Again, Sokka faltered for a moment. Spirits, he hated how pragmatic he had to be about this right now. “He forgot his knife.”

Instead of flinching, Zuko shot a glance into the far corner of the cell. Sokka followed in alarm, just to see a rusty blade peek out from the snow on the ground.

With two strides Sokka reached the corner, drawing back his foot to kick the offending metal.

“No, wait!” It wasn’t Zuko’s weak order that stopped him, but rather the fact that  _ this _ was what finally let him talk to them again. “Bring it to me.” Zuko rasped out, followed by a sudden violent cough. Sokka turned around in concern.

“What? But-”

“ _ We don’t have time, Sokka! _ Just do what he wants and help him!” When he didn’t move immediately, Katara came up to his side and picked up the knife, sheathing it in her belt.

Sokka turned back to where Zuko was still sitting on the ground, wrapped in the blanket. When he extended his hand this time, Zuko laid his own in Sokka’s. But as Sokka readied himself to heave the other to his feet, neither the expected grip nor countermove from the other came. Zuko sat on the ground, eyes still focused  –  or rather  _ un _ focused, Sokka noticed  – at the corner where the knife had laid, his arms slack, palm now only held in the air by Sokka’s own hand.

Finally, a wisp of panic began to claw at Sokka’s lungs. Frantically, he looked at Katara, but her eyes held just as much worry and just as little solution.

“Zuko, come on now. We have to get going  _ now _ .” 

Sokka got no reaction.

Alright, this was no different than a stressful hunting trip, Sokka told himself. Just like when he’d slain a very big tiger seal and had to get it back to the village in time before a pack of polar bear dogs could smell them.

Taking a deep breath, Sokka crouched down, slung his arms around Zuko’s waist and yanked him over his shoulder. Zuko seemed too stunned to say anything. But when Sokka finally lifted him up and managed to stagger back to his feet, the prince almost yelped. “What do you think you are  _ doing _ , peasant!?”

“Saving you. Unless you can walk and sprint by yourself now?” A pained groan was all the answer he got and all he needed. Carefully, he turned around to where Katara already had her hand on the door. Then, they ran.

Later, Sokka would gladly praise his muscles and maybe blame Zuko’s bony body for the sprint that followed, but really, he knew that it was only the growing panic pumping energy through his veins.

They didn’t stop, they didn’t even slow down, didn’t listen for approaching guards (as they maybe should have). Instead, they stormed back the way they’d come, Katara bending the doorway with a flicker of her wrist. And wow, she  _ really _ had gotten good.

Sokka barely noticed when his boots didn’t tap on the hardened ice floor of the palace anymore but sank into the freshly fallen snow outside instead. They dashed through the dark alleys, now no longer glimmering in the setting sun, bust cast in dark shadows, dimly lit by the moon hanging over their heads.

When they finally burst into their sleeping rooms, it was all Sokka could do to dump Zuko down on his bed before doubling over in pain, clasping his side and sucking in as much air as he possibly could. His lungs were on fire. At their window, Katara did much the same, after she’d hurriedly drawn closed the furs serving as curtains.

He didn’t know how long they’d sat there with their heavy gulping breaths being the only sound. When the last grey dots had vanished from Sokka’s vision, he lifted his head to look at their new… guest? Zuko had sat up and crawled to the far corner of Sokka’s bed. The blanket was still drawn tightly around his shaking shoulders. He was safe now, but somehow Sokka had the feeling that for Zuko, this was just another corner to futilely hide in from inevitable pain.

He should probably give the prince some clothes, and food and – The door behind him opened with a gust of wind. Sokka spun around.

“Hey, guys, where have you been all day? Is that…” Everything seemed to freeze. Sokka couldn’t think anymore, could only stare at Aang who’s wide eyes stared at “…Zuko?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: blood and dissociation


	18. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings in the end notes. As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

Fuck.

The Avatar… The Avatar was here. Zuko was weak, and bound, and hurt. And he didn’t have his fire. After everything he’d done – the villages he’d burnt, the people he’d threatened, the endless chase – the Avatar was going to  _ kill _ him.

No. The Avatar could’ve left him to be captured by Zhao at the Pohuai stronghold, but he’d saved him.  _ If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too? _ That must’ve only been a trick to turn Zuko against the Fire Nation, and it hadn’t worked.

But now the Avatar’s friends had just rescued him from their own allies. Unless they were simply delivering him to the Avatar so he could take his revenge on Zuko. As the master of all four elements, the Avatar could do a lot worse than Chief Arnook and his men.

Through it all, even in his condition, a voice in the back of his mind kept whispering,  _ The Avatar is right here. Take him and go. Father will restore your honour. _

He ignored the little voice. It would be dishonourable to betray the people who’d helped him. Until they moved against him, he couldn’t turn on them. He just had to wait until it happened, and it  _ would _ happen. He knew it would. It always did.

No one in the room said anything for what seemed like years. The Avatar just stared at the three of them.

“So, Aang… uh… You remember Zuko, right?” the peasant said.

The awkwardness almost dissipated Zuko’s suspicions. It seemed like the Avatar wasn’t expecting him, so why was Zuko here? They couldn’t be just helping him, right? That couldn’t be it.

The Avatar scowled. It seemed odd to see such an ugly expression on that young face, even to Zuko, who expected something worse.

“Of course I do, Sokka. He–” The Avatar looked at Zuko, and his already big eyes turned to saucers. “What happened to you?”

Zuko pulled the blanket around him tighter self-consciously. He didn’t want the Avatar to see the shackles, or the wounds, or his shaved head, or… everything else.

The girl got up and walked to the Avatar.

“That’s a long story, Aang. I’ll explain everything while you help me with dinner,” she said as she dragged the Avatar out and closed the door behind them.

“Are you alright, man?”

Zuko looked up at the other boy sitting on the other end of the bed. He didn’t trust his own voice, so he just nodded. He wasn’t alright, obviously, but there was no other answer he could give.

“It’s all kinda weird now, right?” Sokka said, running a hand through that messy ponytail of his. “But we rescued you from that cell like we promised. I just need to figure out a way to take you back to your ship, and–”

“My ship?”

What ship? His own ship had been destroyed and the one he was using now could barely be called one by any stretch of the word. So what had they found? Was it a scout from the invasion? Were they coming already? He couldn’t let them find him like this. His father would never forgive his weakness.

“Yeah. Tiny ship not that far from where you landed your boat. Which was destroyed by the waves, by the way,” Sokka said. “What were you thinking? You were nowhere near the city!”

Only a peasant would call it a ship, but it was the right one. The enemy knew where Uncle was waiting for him. Alone. Uncle was the Dragon of the West but even he had his limits and he wasn’t at his best right now. He wouldn’t be able to fight a ship full of watertribesmen by himself when they attacked.

Zuko had fought so hard to keep his mouth shut and protect his nation and his uncle. It was all for nothing. Not only had he failed his mission and left Uncle without another son, he had put him in danger too. It was all his fault.

“Stay away from him!” He wanted it to be a threat, but it was barely more than a whisper that made him cough by the end.

“Calm down, we’re not gonna hurt your uncle. We just want to take you to him, but you gotta start trusting us a little, okay?”

Fine. Sokka wanted trust? He could earn it.

“Can you give him a message, please?” he asked, but it sounded more like begging.

Sokka stared at him for a second before he smiled and jumped out of the bed. He rummaged through the bags in the corner of the room.

“Sure! Let me just find you some paper and a brush.” He’d moved on to a small chest and produced what he was looking for from one of its drawers. He was about to set it on a small wooden table, but the waterbender had left the knife there. He hesitated, looking at it as if it would hurt  _ him _ . “Uh, Zuko? Why did you want us to bring the knife?”

“It’s– it’s mine.”

The boy blinked and stared at Zuko.

“It’s what now?”

“It’s mine. They took it from me when they found me.” They’d taken his clothes, his hair, his knife. They’d taken everything. “Today the man brought it and…  _ used it _ .”

Sokka’s face contorted in a way Zuko couldn’t read. It kept moving, never settling on an expression. Like Sokka couldn’t decide how he felt or what to do about it. It finally stopped on a blank face.

“Excuse me, I gotta go scream somewhere else,” Sokka said calmly. “Join us when you’re done with the message. Dinner must be almost ready.”

After the boy left, Zuko heard him do just that.

He’d expected the Avatar and his friends would be given grand chambers in the palace, but they were in a modest house, outside what he guessed was the main district. The room was smaller than the one he’d had on his ship. It was sparsely furnished and contained barely more than Sokka’s scattered belongings. The walls and floor were lined with furs and tapestries to keep the heat in and the cold out.

It didn’t work. The blanket was wrapped around his shoulders, but he still felt so, so cold. Like it would never go away.

Zuko stumbled to the table, exhaustion and disuse getting in his way. He picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote. When it was dry, he folded it neatly. There was no way to seal it properly or mark it as his, but Uncle would know, as Zuko would when the answer came. The Water Tribe, on the other hand, would get nothing from its contents.

The knife caught his attention. Uncle’s gift to him. It was his most treasured possession. He reached out, but he couldn’t touch it. His own blood was still on it. He could still feel how sharp it was and how deep it could go.

Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He wasn’t there anymore. He would be okay. He would go back to Uncle. The knife would be  _ his _ again.

He shuffled out of the room, struggling to walk in such short chains. The other three went silent and stared at him when he came in. He ignored them and dropped near the sunken hearth, as close to the fire as he could get.

He reached out with his hands. The fire was right in front of him, but he could barely feel it. It was like a fuzzy memory of something he couldn’t be sure had really happened instead of the powerful heartbeat that would call to his own flame.

And he was still cold.

A bowl materialized in his hands. Sokka sat next to him and the girl on his other side. The Avatar was sitting across from him. Neither of them was really eating.

Zuko stared at the bowl. The thick soup had some chunks of meat in it, as well as seaweed and a couple of vegetables he couldn’t identify. It smelled amazing. He brought the bowl to his lips and slurped a little. His stomach growled in content.

“It’s not the palace food you’re probably used to, but we like to keep it simple even when we’re not on the move,” the girl said apologetically.

He wasn’t used to much of anything lately. Even before that, the meals on the ship hadn’t been extraordinary either. The cook was good, but he could only do so much with what he was given. Zuko’s budget didn’t allow for more.

“It’s delicious, thank you.” He bowed his head a little before he could think too much about it. Right now these three weren’t his enemies, just kind people offering him food.

“Just be careful. If you eat too much too fast, it will make you sick, because–” she slammed her mouth shut.

_ Because I’ve barely eaten in weeks _ , he completed in his head.

He drank some more. It filled his stomach, but it didn’t warm him.

“Slow down, dude. The soup is straight from the fire, it’s still burning hot,” warned Sokka. “Then again, you’re a firebender, so I guess you can’t get burn–”

There it was. The reaction everyone had when they talked about scars or burns in front of him. Did people think he didn’t notice he had a hideous scar unless they mentioned it? Did they think they were sparing him by walking on eggshells around him? It only made it worse. Everyone thought he couldn’t handle it, that he was fragile. He wasn’t.

Zuko wondered if any of them would ask how it happened. He feared how they’d react when he didn’t answer.

Before he knew it, the soup was gone. He wanted to ask for more, but the girl was right and he needed to let his stomach settle. Besides, he didn’t want to abuse his hosts’  _ hospitality _ .

The others weren’t done yet. The girl peered at Zuko over the rim of her bowl. The Avatar picked at his soup but didn’t eat. Sokka was gulping down his.

The air around them felt thick enough to cut with a knife. The others didn’t know how to talk to him and he didn’t know how to talk to them. The three of them couldn’t have their normal conversations either because their enemy was right there. Zuko would’ve left if he had anywhere to go.

Instead, he waited and stared at the fire, hoping it would awaken something in him. His gaze followed the flames and his breathing slowed to match their rhythm. Images sprung from the fire, dragons and storms and lands burned to ashes.

He startled awake. Sokka and the Avatar were gone, and only the girl remained around the hearth. The waterbender. Had the others left so they wouldn’t see what she would do to him?

“Does it help to be near the fire?” she asked. “I always feel better in the water.”

It was supposed to, but it didn’t. Zuko barely felt anything at all.

He said nothing.

“I can heal your wounds,” she offered.

He looked at the dry blood that had dripped down his arms and at the rust-brown stains on his clothes. The cuts and the bruises hurt, but the pain was far away, as if it belonged to someone else.

“No.”

“Please, I just wanna help you. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Her blue eyes were shining. They had the strength of the sea in them.

“Why bother asking if you’re gonna do what you want anyway?” he snapped.

The girl pulled away from him and lowered her eyes. Had she  _ winced _ ?

“I won’t do it if you don’t want me to,” she said gently.

Something twisted in his heart. She was the enemy and a waterbender. It shouldn’t matter that he’d made her upset. Why did he care?

Because his mother had taught him to be kind and polite to everyone. He’d forgotten most of her lessons in the last three years, but Uncle was always repeating them.

It was rude to refuse her offer, but he couldn’t answer anything else.

“No,” he said. Then he added, “Thank you, Katara.”

She swallowed and got to her feet, brushing down her skirt.

“That’s Sokka’s room,” she said, pointing at the room he’d been in. “He’s already sleeping, but he won’t wake up when you enter, and the bed is big enough for the two of you. Stay here as long as you want.”

He nodded and she left.

The fire kept burning in front of him, but it might as well be at the other end of the world. Zuko couldn’t feel it nor its warmth. It was dead to him. Perhaps he was the one who’d died, and all that was left was a fireless husk.

The dance of the flames trapped his gaze again. He fed it another log. Too tired to stay awake, it lulled him to sleep.

  
  


There was water around his ankles.

Darkness swallowed him whole. The silence was heavy and oppressive, like a mountain sitting on his chest.

He commanded a flame to come. It did not obey.

There was water around his knees.

He tried to speak, but no words came out. When he moved, there was no splashing. All sound was gone from the world. There was no life left in it.

He requested a flame to come. It did not reply.

There was water around his waist.

Where was he? Where was everyone? What about Father and Azula? What about Mother? What about Uncle? What’d happened to all of them?

He beseeched a flame to come. It did not care.

There was water around his chest.

Without fire, he chose to swim. His limbs were made of lead and the water as thick as honey. No matter how hard he tried, he could not escape. It kept rising. It curled around his neck. It covered his mouth and nose.

It was inside him. Zuko was drowning.

  
  


A hand pulled him from the deep.

“Prince Zuko!”

He opened his eyes, struggling for air.

A girl was kneeling by his side, a hand on his shoulder. She had the brown skin and blue eyes typical of the water tribe, but her hair was whiter than the snow outside. It was pulled up in a complex hairdo that would put most women in the Fire Nation to shame. The little crease of worry in her brow did nothing to dampen her beauty.

The fire was burning low, slowly licking a thick log. The sun shone through the window and into the kitchen, and Zuko leaned in its direction. Sokka stood by the girl’s side, his eyebrows knitted together. Katara and the Avatar were gone.

“Are you all right?” Her voice was sweet but had a formal touch to it.

Zuko sat up and scrambled away from her. The blanket slid down his shoulders. The girl gasped and covered her mouth.

He pulled the blanket up again. He hated that anyone could see that. His weakness and indignity. They all looked at him with such pity.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

He looked up at Sokka, waiting for him to say something or do something. What was going on? Who was this girl?

“I’m Princess Yue. I’d like to speak to you, Prince Zuko.”

Zuko reeled.  _ Princess _ ? That meant she was the Chief’s daughter. The Avatar’s friends had betrayed him. She was here to take him back to the cell, to the man, to the waterbender.

Nonononono– He wasn’t going back there. He wasn’t. He’d d–

A steaming bowl was pressed into his hands. He only just noticed they were shaking.

“Listen, Zuko, Yue helped you escape.” The peasant was between him and the princess, staring at Zuko as if he were a scared turtle-duck. “Just have some breakfast for now.”

Zuko took the chopsticks he offered. The rice seemed alien to him at the moment. He should be hungry, starving even, but the rice didn’t feel like food. His body couldn’t comprehend why he was having a meal so soon after the last one.

“I’m sorry I have upset you, Prince Zuko,” the girl said from behind Sokka.

She stood up and turned to leave. Sokka was right behind her.

“Thank you, Princess.” Zuko bowed his head. “I understand what it must’ve cost you going against your duty to your people.”

“My duty to my people cannot mean  _ this _ . I’ve always put my tribe first, but I can’t put it before doing the right thing. What kind of princess would that make me?”

_ A princess like Azula. Someone that always gets their way. _

If Princess Yue meant what she said, she was too good for times of war.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?” Zuko asked. The princess had saved his life. The least he could do was listen to what she had to say.

She sat back down in front of him, careful to keep the distance, but ever so regal and graceful. It reminded him of Mother and his heart broke.

Sokka was next to her, his knee brushing hers.

“I wanted to apologize for what my father and his men have done to you,” the princess said, never looking away from him. “There is no excuse for what they’ve done.”

_ War is excuse enough. Father would’ve done the same if he had the Princess in his hands _ . His stomach turned at the thought, so he chose to ignore it.

He stayed silent and made an effort to eat. He couldn’t exactly say  _ I forgive you _ , so what was left to say to that?

“This is not the father I know,” the princess continued. “I would never imagine him capable of such a thing. I don’t even know who he is anymore.”

_ Fathers have a way to surprise you. _ Zuko pushed that thought away too.

He looked at the princess and saw the confusion and disbelief on her face. Her life had turned upside-down recently. Her father wasn’t who she thought he was and her duty to her nation didn’t mean what she’d thought it meant.

Zuko knew what that was like. Three years later, he was still figuring out how to deal with it.

He could really use some of Uncle’s wisdom right now.

Sokka would have to do.

“All it matters is who  _ you _ are,” the boy told the princess. His gaze focused only on her, as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. “And you are the kindest and bravest person I’ve ever met.”

A wide smile bloomed on Princess Yue’s face. She was blushing.

Zuko had never been good at reading people. He didn’t need to with these two. They were as obvious as the sun in the summer blue sky. It was heartwarming, but he couldn’t take it right now. He couldn’t deal with other people having normal lives with sweet, happy moments when his own was in shambles.

In another life, he would’ve just sneaked out quietly and be gone before they missed him. In his current situation, he couldn’t take a step before tripping and making a fool of himself.

“You okay, Zuko?” asked Sokka. Zuko just nodded, trying to not embarrass himself any further. “We gotta get rid of those chains. Katara could freeze and break the locks. If you want, of course” he added quickly.

“We must see to your wounds as well,” said Princess Yue. Zuko could see in her eyes that it pained her to think of what they meant, but her voice was perfectly composed. “They must be cleaned and bandaged.”

They were both right, but Zuko didn’t want the waterbender anywhere near him. Not for the chains, not for the wounds. He’d manage it himself.

“Princess Yue, may I have a hairpin, please?” he asked.

Both the princess and Sokka gaped at him for a moment. Then, Princess Yue reached into her hair and pulled out a slender pin made of bone. No one could tell it was gone.

Zuko took it and inserted it in the keyhole of one of his manacles. He twisted, listening carefully for the pins clicking into place. The lock slid open. He repeated the process with the others. The chains fell to the ice floor with a clatter. He pulled back, half expecting them to come to life and bind him again.

“Where does a prince learn how to do that?” Sokka asked. The admiration in his tone poked Zuko’s ego awake.

Sokka picked up the pin and shoved it into the lock. He moved it around carelessly, perhaps expecting it to magically open if he tried hard enough.

Zuko stared at his wrists and ankles. They’d been red and sore before the old woman healed them. Now there were only some light fresh bruises.

The rest of his body, however, was another story.

He was filthy, covered in dry blood and sweat. He didn’t even feel quite human. He desperately needed to clean himself, and his wounds needed care before they festered.

“May I have some water and a rag, please?” he asked.

“There’s a tub in the washroom. You can have a proper bath there,” Sokka replied, and he started dragging a water pail half his height to the fire. “Let me just heat you some water.”

The idea of sinking into water that could come over him made him shudder. Even the thought of water on his skin made him think of ice encasing his body and his own frozen blood cutting through him.

“N-no, thank you. The bucket’s enough.”

Sokka nodded stiffly and lead him into the washroom. It was simple, like the rest of the house, with only the wooden tub and a bench with a yellow bar of soap on it.

Zuko sat on the bench while Sokka brought a bucket and clean towels in one arm and a set of clothes on the other. Fur-lined, cosy clothes. Shoes too. He set it all down on the rug at Zuko’s feet.

“Do you need any help?”

Zuko shook his head. Sokka hesitated but left.

Let the lovebirds have their moments. He wasn’t jealous. He didn’t want to love and be loved like that. He didn’t have time for that. The Fire Nation came first. It was his duty to capture their enemy so his country could finally win the war. Then there would be peace, progress, happiness.

With a deep breath, he unwrapped the blanket and took off the torn clothes he’d been wearing for who knew how long. He dropped the soap in the water. Shivering, he dunked the towel in the bucket. The touch of water made him sick, but he swallowed and pushed onward.

He scrubbed every inch of his body, scrubbed hard and deep until it hurt. His cuts stung. He welcomed the pain. It was his and only his; his to bear and his to cause. It made him feel like a person, like he could do something, like he had a choice in what happened to him. Even if it was bad,  _ he _ made it happen.

His body was different. The strong muscle he’d gained in years of training was turning soft and shrinking. There were bones he’d never noticed before. His skin was not only pale, but almost transparent and brittle. Even his hair was gone, and his head was now covered by an uneven stubble.

Half of him needed a mirror to assess the damage; the other half could not stand the idea. It was just like when he’d been banished, but this time it was about more than his face.

After he was done, the water was dark and disgusting and the towel could never be washed clean again. The effort left Zuko too tired to move, much less put anything away. He got into the clothes, curled up under the blanket, and lay on the bench, using his arm as a pillow.

He woke to the sound of arguing, but he couldn’t hear what the voices said. Was it about him? Did they regret bringing him here? Would they take him back?

His heart raced in his chest. He slipped off of the bench. The floor was covered in furs here too, making his steps silent without trying. He walked to the door and listened.

“... an earthbending master,” he heard Katara say.

“We have to go back to Omashu,” the Avatar chirped. “Bumi will teach me!”

Omashu was the Earth Kingdom’s second-largest city and one of the few still standing. It was said King Bumi was mad, but it endured while others fell. Zuko remembered seeing something about it in one of the last reports he’d read, but he couldn’t recall what it said.

If the Avatar was going to learn from the King himself, he’d be learning from one of the best earthbenders in history. The boy was already a powerful bender, if he mastered another element, he’d be nearly unstoppable.

And if he somehow found a firebending teacher...

“Then what?” Sokka asked. “You’re gonna need to master firebending too to face the Fire Lord before the comet. How–”

Zuko opened the door. The others were sitting around the fire and they shut up immediately.

“How can you help me while you plan to kill my father and destroy my nation?!”

The Avatar shot up. His hands balled into fists at his sides.

“That’s not what we said!” he yelled, voice trembling.

The boy could be about to enter the Avatar State. Zuko’s instincts told him to step back, but he held his ground.

“Then what will you do when you «face the Fire Lord»? What will you do to my people?” he demanded.

The Avatar swallowed. He opened his mouth, but Katara spoke first.

“We have to end the war, Zuko.”  _ Whatever the cost _ was implied in her words.

He flinched. She might pretend otherwise, but she was just like the others. She would do  _ anything _ to reach her goal. The ends justified the means to her. Even kill, if need be. Not for the first time, the waterbender reminded him of his sister.

What was he doing? His life was in their hands, why was he going against them? Had he not learned his lesson for speaking out of turn? It had already cost him his home, his throne, and his family. What would it take now? His life?

Well, this time he wouldn’t get on his knees and beg.

“I want the war to be over too,” he said, “but not at the Fire Nation’s expense.”

Sokka stood up slowly and glared at him. “At ours, then?”

Zuko didn’t say anything. He didn’t want any more death or bloodshed, but he couldn’t see any other way. No side was willing to surrender. They all had their own people to protect.

These truly were his enemies. He should’ve never seen them as anything else.

“I didn’t start this war, but I will end it,” declared the Avatar.

His eyes were steel, his mouth a grim line. Zuko remembered when those same eyes shone as if made of light, the power of the hundreds of previous Avatars inside a child. He’d seen the destruction that meant, and he knew what that boy could do. Nothing got in the way of the Avatar State.

“Just say it,” he challenged, “say you’ll kill my Father!”

“I won’t kill anyone!” the Avatar shouted.

Did he truly believe that? He was only a child, after all, and airbenders were pacifists. Had he not seen enough of war yet to know what it demanded?

“C’mon,” Sokka said, waving his hands in front of Zuko, “your father doesn’t even care about you.”

_ Dad’s going to kill you _ , Azula sang in his memories.

That wasn’t true. Father loved him. Father cared about him. Father would welcome him back and restore his honour when he brought home the Avatar.

Sokka was lying, just like Azula had lied. It was all part of their plan to get him to betray the Fire Nation.

“What?” Zuko snarled.

“Chief Arnook sent a ransom note to the Fire Lord days ago,” Sokka said, looking right through him. “You know what your  _ father _ replied? He said: «I have no son.»”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: nightmares, drowning, PTSD, and slight self-injury


	19. The Alarm

Nuka couldn’t remember if he’d ever run that fast before in his life. He slid over the icy streets, jumped over ledges and stairs. His throat was on fire from the freezing air he sucked in with every step that carried him further away from the palace. More than once did he lose his balance when taking a turn, every time he was back on his feet before he fully hit the ground.

His heart was racing. So were his thoughts.

Had he forgotten to lock the door?

Had the prince used the knife Nuka had forgotten to pick the lock? How had he gotten out of the ice? He must have firebent.

What if he’d had his fire all along and was just acting? Had he been waiting for the right moment? Had he used this moment to flee with his fire because he had the knife as a lock-pick? Or was there a different reason for the timing?

What were they planning?

Had it been the plan to smuggle their prince into the city all along? And they’d marched right into the Fire Nation’s trap?

But why had he not waited for Master Yugoda to heal his wounds then? Because of the knife? Yes, he probably knew that the knife would be retrieved by the time his wounds were tended to.

Now it made sense why the Fire Nation had sent him alone. Why he hadn’t answered any question with anything but babbled nonsense. Why he’d acted so  _ weird _ ever since the beginning.

He had been fulfilling his mission all along.

But then again, what could possibly have been the plan if they’d sent only one man? Even if it was their prince. What was there to do where a single person could achieve more than a thousand?

The Spirit Oasis! He was only one relatively small person. It would be easy for him to sneak in there. Especially if nobody expected any danger. Even more so if everybody was searching for said danger _outside_ _in the city_.

And since their prisoner had been such a well-guarded secret, barely anybody would be aware of the exact threat that was the escapee. Tui and La, even some of those who had guarded the prince hadn’t even known who they were guarding.

He had to warn the Chief.

How was Chief Arnook going to explain a thorough search and potential lock-down of the city to the whole tribe? The people might obey, but they still wouldn’t know about the _severity_ of the situation and the danger they were in. And there _would_ be questions. 

How would he explain it to his family? That was  _ his _ problem to worry about.

Tui and La, his family!

With a muffled curse, Nuka whirled around mid-step and started back up the staircase he’d just been skipping down.

He had to get back to them, tell them to hide, protect them. A very dangerous firebender was loose in their city. Where Nuka’s family was. The family of the man who’d hurt said firebender over and over again. It was only logical that he’d pay them a short visit as a payback before going about whatever the Fire Nation had planned.

Shit, he had to hurry.

The main streets were now buzzing with people, some clearly with instructions to secure and search the city, some to look if they could help while not knowing what they’d help with, and then some just standing there and asking nobody in particular what was going on in an attempt to clear their confusion and being in Nuka’s way. Had he had a breath to spare, he’d have yelled at them to go the fuck inside and wait for instructions. Instead, he sucked in each valuable breath and pushed his body to run even faster.

The houses and streets around him blurred together into a tunnel of ice and snow as he raced down one last alley before leaping over their garden wall and finally throwing open the door to his house.

A startled scream shrilled through the hall as the door flew open and crashed against the wall. His wife stood in the middle of the entry room, a basket of laundry lying at her feet. Before Nuka could even close the few steps of distance between them, her expression went from shocked to furious.

“What spirit has possessed you, Nuka! Barging in like that. You almost gave me a heart attack. I want to see  _ you _ doing the laundry and cooking our meals when I am bedridden because you are apparently – “

Whatever insanity she’d wanted to accuse him of was lost in the crushing hug Nuka engulfed her in as soon as he reached her.

Hesitant arms wrapped around his back, returning the hug.

“Nuka?” Her anger had given way to confusion.

“Where are the children?”

“What? They are in their rooms. Sesi is already in bed and I believe Lenka and Annat are reading? Nuka, what happened? What is going on?”

“Good, good. Just, give me a moment.” Nuka made sure to close and lock the door and every window, before finally getting out of his sweat-drenched parka.

Outside the house, excited voices started yelling at each other and lights flashed as lanterns and torches were illuminating the streets without any rhythm. The search troops had arrived.

It probably would be best if they would all sleep together in the middle of the house. The cooking room would provide enough space for all five of them.

Nuka doubted that he would find any sleep that night.

When Nuka stepped back into the living room, his wife sat by the fire, hands wrapped around a steaming cup.

Nuka sunk down at the seating furs opposite of her with a heavy sigh. He began his explanation with the only words he could think of: “I am sorry.”


	20. Messages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is particularly dark. Please read the trigger warnings in the end notes and please skip this chapter if you need to. Stay safe. We love you.
> 
> As always, if we're missing something, please let us know so we can add it.

Katara’s mother had died to protect her daughter. Two years ago, her father had built a fleet and gone to war so his children could live in peace. So had every other capable adult in her village. She couldn’t even begin to imagine a parent who wouldn’t do anything for their child. Much less one that would renounce them so easily.

The Fire Lord was even more of a monster than she’d thought.

Zuko was not taking it well. All she wanted to do was hug him and not think this was probably not the first time his father was awful to him.

He was sitting on his heels, head down. His face was buried in his hands, fingers twitching, grabbing at hair that wasn’t there anymore. His whole body was shaking. It seemed like he was about to shatter into a thousand little pieces they could never put back together.

Katara didn’t know what to do or how to help, and it was killing her. She couldn’t stand to see him like that, but she didn’t know what to do to make it better. She wanted to say something or do something, but nothing was good enough and anything could make it worse.

She exchanged a glance with Sokka and Aang. They were as lost as she was.

Suddenly, Zuko stood up and walked to the main door. There were red lines where his fingers had scratched his head. His eyes were bloodshot. Tear tracks were drying on his cheeks, but he didn’t seem to notice. 

What was he thinking?

“Where are you going?!” she asked instead.

“Out for a swim.” The emptiness in his tone chilled her in a way no winter ever could. 

Sokka jumped in front of him. He wore the same determination as when he’d faced Zuko’s ship alone with nothing but a boomerang.

“Are you crazy? You can’t go outside! Someone will see you!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Zuko stepped to the side and Sokka stepped with him. Like they were dancing to music only they could hear.

“«It doesn’t matter»?! After everything we’ve done to get you out, you’re walking right back in?”

How could it not matter? They would  _ hurt _ him if he went back. It would  _ kill _ him. How could he not care?

“You’re not thinking straight, Zuko,” she said, moving to stand next to Sokka.

Katara reached out to comfort Zuko, to hug him, but she stopped before she could. He wouldn’t want to be touched by  _ her _ .

He simply shrugged and tried to move around Sokka, as if that were enough for them to let him walk into certain death.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Sokka yelled.

“Am I  _ your _ prisoner now?” How could he still sound so  _ unfeeling _ ?

Sokka looked like he was about to throw up. No words rushed out of him like they always did. Her brother was rarely silent and it was never a good sign.

Was Zuko right? Would they lock him up, like the Chief and his men had, even if it was to protect him from himself?

What would that make them?

The idea of forcing Zuko to do anything made her skin crawl. They had to convince him to stay willingly. Otherwise, they’d cross a line they would never come back from.

“What about your uncle?” she asked. “Don’t you wanna go back to him?”

If they could get Zuko back to the old man, where he belonged, he would come back to his senses. His uncle would know how to take care of him.

“I’m a burden to him,” Zuko said, and Katara couldn’t be sure if she’d heard his voice crack just a little. “This way he can return home. I can’t.”

“Don’t say that…”

“I want to go home too,” Aang said softly. It broke her heart to hear him say that. “But I can’t, because it’s gone. Yours isn’t.”

Aang had been devastated when they’d visited the Southern Air Temple and it finally hit him that the Air Nomads were gone. His people, his entire culture, even the temple he used to call home were gone forever. They’d been gone for a hundred years and he was the only one left. A piece of living history.

Sometimes it was easy to forget he wasn’t a carefree boy rolling around in an airball. He was the Avatar. He was also the last airbender. No one knew loss like he did. 

“My home is a lie,” Zuko said, eyes fixed on the floor.

Sokka grabbed him by the shoulder, but he didn’t even react.

“I know it sounds kinda lame, but home is what you make of it.”

Katara looked at Aang and her brother and beamed. They were her  _ home _ . Gran-Gran and dad were her home too. Not the South Pole or the North Pole, but her family and her friends. She wanted to hug the three of them on the spot.

“Yeah, in the last couple of weeks home hasn’t been in the South Pole anymore. It’s Sokka, and Aang, and me. I guess your home would be with your uncle.”

Zuko didn’t say anything for a long time. Katara could only wonder and worry about what was going on behind those golden eyes. She feared what he would do next. Or try to.

Aang and Sokka were hanging on just as she was.

“May I have a candle, please?” he finally asked. “And a quiet corner, if possible.”

It caught her off guard. It took her a moment to understand the words. They hadn’t been the ones she’d expected, though she didn’t know what she’d been expecting.

“Of course,” she said, “we must have a spare here somewhere.”

When Chief Arnook had given them a place to stay, he’d also given them everything they needed to live in it. Food, linens, dishes, candles… Each of them had one they took to their respective rooms, but there had to be more.

She finally found a candle in the bottom of one of the cupboard drawers. It would’ve been easier if they didn’t have so much stuff. Three people didn’t need all of that nor a place so big.

She handed Zuko the candle. She wanted to squeeze his hand or touch his arm, but it wasn’t a good idea. Instead, she laced her hands together so they wouldn’t do anything they shouldn’t.

“You can go to my room, I’ll stay with Aang,” her brother said, scratching the back of his neck. “If you can find a corner in that mess.”

It would be a miracle if Zuko found a spot to sit in. Sokka was pure chaos.

“Thank you.”

Zuko lit the candle in the fire burning in the hearth and turned to leave. What was the candle for? Bending practise? Katara had thought he’d be too tired and hungry.

“Wait,” she called, taking the lid of the cooking pot. “Take a bowl of stew with you. We were just finishing making dinner.”

He didn’t meet her eyes.

“I’m not hungry.” 

“But you’ve barely eaten all day!”

In fact, Sokka had told them Zuko had only eaten when he’d shoved food in his hands that morning, and that he’d slept through most of the day.

“I’m used to it,” Zuko said, and closed the door behind him.

Katara sat down with a sigh. It was her job to take care of them,  _ all of them _ , because someone had to, and she was failing miserably with Zuko already.

Sokka scooped out a huge serving of stew into his bowl. He dropped to the floor and blew on it while Katara and Aang filled their own bowls.

“That was…” he started but didn’t finish.

“We have to get him out soon.”

She didn’t want to think what he’d do if he’d stayed much longer. He was already fading. They were running out of time before Zuko freaked out again or someone found him.

The three of them scooted to sit close together, speaking in hushed tones. They didn’t want to be overheard a second time. Once had been bad enough.

“Zuko is not okay,” Aang said as he used airbending to cool off his stew. “He needs to be with his uncle. With people like him.”

Katara didn’t fail to notice that as much as Aang needed it too, he could never do it again.

“Why did you have to say it like that, Sokka?” she scolded to distract Aang.

“He’d find out anyway,” her brother replied while chewing. Would he never learn basic manners? “Now he knows what kind of man his father is. It’s for the best. It may be good for us too, if now he gives up on trying to capture you, Aang.”

Aang opened his mouth, hesitated, and shaking his head, closed it again. Then he spoke, “It would be fun not having to worry about that.”

“Can you imagine how much stuff will get done when we’re not fearing for our lives?”

“There’s still Zhao,” Katara pointed out.

Sokka stuck his tongue out at her. “Buzzkill.”

“Don’t put the cart in front of the ostrich-horse. We still have to get Zuko out, and I have no idea how we’re gonna manage that with all those warriors walking the streets.”

It was a loose knot in their net, and it could unravel everything. They’d predicted it would happen, but they’d gotten Zuko out anyway because they couldn’t leave him in that cell any longer. They’d hoped against hope that it wouldn’t be so fast, or that Sokka would’ve come up with a plan in time. Now the city was crawling with soldiers and they had no idea how to get Zuko to his ship.

The problem was that their house was in the middle of the city, where there was no space for a ten-ton flying bison. Appa was staying at the stables with the buffalo yaks the Northerners used to carry just about anything. Waterbenders had night shifts because of the moon, and non-benders worked day shifts. It was full of people at all times. Zuko couldn’t go to the stables and Appa couldn’t go to the house. Anywhere outside the city meant sneaking Zuko for too long a distance.

Sokka sighed loudly. The stew sloshed wildly in his bowl as he waved his hands around. Katara rolled her eyes.

“Don’t remind me. Yue and I spent all day talking about it and we got nothing.”

Katara seriously doubted that all they’d been doing was  _ talking _ . Not when Zuko had left them all alone while there was no one else at home.

At dawn, Katara and Aang had left the house for waterbending practise as usual. She’d missed a few sessions with both her masters in the last few days, but she’d thought of a good excuse. But when they’d gotten there, the other students told them Master Pakku wasn’t coming due to some urgent business with the Chief.

The others were practising even without their master, so Katara and Aang stayed too, sparing and listening to their gossip. No one knew what was actually going on, but as the day went on, more and more armed men filled the city. They searched every nook and corner of the streets, and it was only a matter of time before they started searching inside as well.

“Have you heard anything?” Aang asked. “Officially, I mean.”

“Yeah, Chief Arnook sent a messenger to summon me to the palace and told me.” Sokka drank the rest of his stew and put down the bowl in front of him. He’d usually be getting seconds. “He offered to put some guards around here for protection, but I said it would stress you out and you can’t be stressed when you’re trying to master all four elements. But he’ll probably send them anyway, so we have to be extra careful.”

“What do we do now?” Aang asked.

“We still have to deliver Zuko’s message, like we promised,” Katara replied. “Maybe the trip will help.”

Sokka crossed his arms in front of his chest and scowled.

“I don’t like the idea of taking him back to his ship. I know we have to, but what if his uncle is like his dad?”

“He seems nice,” Aang said between slurps.

“I think so too.”

Katara knew well that appearances could be deceiving, but the old man had always seemed kinder than his nephew, maybe even a good influence on him.

Sokka threw his hands up in defeat. “Okay, I’ll deliver the damn message.”

“No way you’re going. You could ruin everything by being like that. I’ll go.”

“You’re not going without me, it could be dangerous.”

“I’m a waterbender!”

“And I have a boomerang!”

Aang cleared his throat. “Guys, keep it down. Zuko will hear you.”

When had Aang become the grown-up in the room?

“We could both go,” Sokka began, wringing his hands, “but then Aang would be alone with Zuko.”

There was a bad history between them. It wasn’t that long ago that Zuko had chased them, burning everything in his way. They couldn’t just forget that. Zuko wasn’t in any condition to do it now, but the idea of leaving Aang alone with him still made Katara uneasy.

Aang grinned at both of them. “I’m the Avatar. I’ll be fine.”

Katara and Sokka looked at each other and nodded. He might be only a child, but Aang was the most powerful bender they’d ever seen. And the Avatar State would destroy anything in his way if need be. He was more than safe.

  
  


The next morning, Katara and Sokka met in the kitchen while the other two were still sleeping. While she put away their plates and cups, Sokka slipped silently into his room and grabbed Zuko’s message. He wore a confused look when he came out but remained silent.

Neither said anything for a while as they walked to the stables. It was how they usually dealt with their arguments, and this had been a stupid one.

“He was sleeping on the floor,” Sokka said out of nowhere. “Again.”

“But the bed was free.”

“I know. Do you think…?” Sokka asked.

“I don’t know what to think anymore.”

When it came to Zuko, she never knew what to think. At all. Everything about that boy made less and less sense the more she learned about him.

“Yeah. Before, we had good and evil. Now it’s all mixed up and I don’t like it.”

A patrol passed by, cutting their conversation short, and the men nodded at them with stern faces. There were more of them than yesterday, and they all carried swords or clubs or boomerangs. Everyday people, on the other hand, hurried from place to place, as if they didn’t want to be on the street any longer than they needed to.

As they arrived at the stables, everyone there greeted them with welcoming familiarity, as if they’d lived here all their lives. As if they were home.

No one said anything about what was going on, but Katara saw the worry in their eyes.

Katara ruffled Appa’s fur while Sokka dodged the bison’s tongue. That drool would freeze as soon as they got in the air if he had any on him.

No one had ever asked where they were going or what they were doing. They were Water Tribe and they were the Avatar’s friends. That was enough. People trusted them. Now they were betraying them.

“Be careful,” said the man brushing a buffalo yak in the stall next to them.

The warning unsettled Katara’s stomach. These people, the ordinary people, were kind to them and treated them like one of their own, while she, Sokka and Aang were harbouring their enemy in the house they’d given them. Even if she had a good reason, she was still a traitor.

“Thanks,” Sokka replied with a tight smile. “We will.”

As Appa soared high into the skies, Katara held onto the reins and guided him to where they’d found the ship. Appa would remember where to go without her, but it felt good to have something to do instead of just waiting to get there.

“What do you think it says?”

She looked over her shoulder to find her brother fidgeting with the folded piece of paper.

“Don’t you dare read it, Sokka!”

“But what if it has something important? Something that could help us with the war?”

Why did Sokka have to be reasonable and practical like that? It was the smart thing to do, of course. They desperately needed any help they could get against the Fire Nation. But it was the wrong thing, and Zuko had already had plenty of wrong things done to him.

She shook her head, more to convince herself than her brother.

“No, we can’t read it. He trusted us to give it to his uncle. We have to live up to that trust.”

Sokka mumbled something she couldn’t make out and the conversation died there.

The sky was a vibrant blue, not a cloud in sight. The ocean below reflected that same colour. Katara felt the push and pull of the waves – even from so high up – and the currents beneath. It felt like this massive creature that was the ocean was kin to her; it was a part of her and she a part of it.

Before she could close her eyes and drift to the music of the sea, she noticed the cliff and the faint wisp of smoke coming from behind it. She touched Appa, and the bison descended slowly towards the ship.

A figure came out of the ship’s cabin. Though they couldn’t see him clearly, it could only be Zuko’s uncle. The man had his hands behind his back, but Katara knew a fighting stance when she saw one. He was ready to jump at them if he needed to.

Appa glided over the waters until he stopped next to the ship. The old man was at the railing, looking down at them.

“Good morning. To what do I owe this visit?” His tone betrayed no emotion of any kind. Either he didn’t care about his nephew, as Sokka suspected, or he was a very dangerous man.

Her brother stiffened beside her. Her hands itched to pull the sea to her, but she stifled that instinct.

“We have a message from your nephew,” Sokka said.

The old man’s mask broke, revealing the worry and fear beneath. He immediately extended them a ladder, and they climbed on board.

“Where’s Zuko? What happened to him?”

Katara couldn’t find the words to answer, but that was rarely a problem for her brother.

“He was captured by the Chief’s men, but he’s fine. He gave us a message for you.”

Zuko’s uncle took the paper Sokka offered with only the slightest tremor of his hand. Katara watched relief flood his face as his eyes scanned the page.

“How rude of me. Come inside for some tea,” he said, leading them into the cabin. “My name is Iroh.”

It was bizarre to make introductions after knowing each other for so long.

“I’m Katara and this is my brother Sokka.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally learn your names,” Iroh said with a smile.

The cabin was a cramped little space. A table and a couple of chairs filled the middle of the room, while along the walls were several devices Katara couldn’t identify, as well as the helm. There was little space left for the three of them.

In a corner, Iroh filled a kettle. He held it in his hands, and soon it was steaming. He poured the tea into simple tin cups and set them on the table, taking one for himself as he sat.

Sokka sank into his chair but ignored the cup in front of him, choosing to glare at Iroh. Katara sat down and took a small sip from her tea. It was delicious.

“Please excuse me, it’s the only tea I have here at the moment.”

Did he think this was anything but excellent tea? What was wrong with Fire Nation people? They were all so weird.

“Thank you,” she said.

She kicked her brother under the table. He yelped before mumbling his thanks.

“We want to get Zuko out, but we don’t know how to do it without being caught yet.”

“So you’re going behind the Chief’s back.” Shit! She’d already said too much. “Then this is no negotiation for his release.”

“The Chief doesn’t want to release him, but that doesn’t mean  _ we _ don’t want to make a deal,” Sokka lied. His eyes bore into the old man. “What will you give to get him back?”

“I don’t have a lot to give anymore, but I’ll take his place. I’m sure the Dragon of the West is more valuable than a teenage boy. If nothing else, I’m sure the Earth Kingdom would pay a hefty price for my head.”

Katara was almost sure he meant it. Iroh was willing to give his life for that of his nephew, while the boy’s father wouldn’t even negotiate. She was relieved to see that Zuko still had a family that loved him.

Sokka picked his cup and sniffed it. He slurped a small sip. Katara was about to die of embarrassment.

“The Chief wants to deal with the Fire Lord,” Sokka said, “but I knew you’d be a better option.”

“I doubt my brother would even negotiate at all.”

“While you don’t even bargain,” Katara replied.

Iroh knew the Fire Lord didn’t care. Was that why Zuko was travelling with his uncle instead of staying in the palace with his father?

“Not when it comes to my nephew’s life.”

Katara glanced at Sokka. Had Iroh finally passed his test or whatever this little act of his was? Her brother had a devious smirk on his lips. She wanted to slap it off. This was cruel.

“That settles it.”

“May I write a reply?” the old man asked in a half-strangled voice.

“Of course,” Katara replied.

Iroh fetched paper and a brush from a box tucked between the ship’s instruments. Whatever he wrote, it was short and quick. She hoped it would be enough for Zuko. Enough to make him trust them. Enough to give him hope.

The old man folded the paper and set it on the table. Then he retrieved something from his sleeve and put it on top of it. It was a Pai Sho tile. The White Lotus.

“Please give this to him as well.”

“We will.”

Katara held Iroh’s hand and smiled at him. There was sadness in his golden eyes, only she didn’t know if it was for himself or Zuko.

“Thank you, miss Katara. May I see my nephew when we have the exchange? I’d like to say goodbye.”

Sokka stood up and shoved the paper and the tile in his parka’s inside pocket.

“There will be no exchange. We’re bringing Zuko to you and the two of you can go,” he admitted. “I just wanted to see what kind of man you are.”

Iroh’s face turned back into an expressionless mask. “Will you just let us go?”

“Yes. Go wherever you want,” Sokka said, “as long as it’s not after us again.”

The old man stood and bowed to both of them, a fist pressed to his palm.

“Thank you very much,” he said. “Please hurry. We live in uncertain times and who knows what can happen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: (active) suicidal ideation, disordered eating, reference to genocide, slight self-injury


	21. Good Dreams and Bad News

Even with all the rational and scientific assurance Sokka had given himself that there was no way Zuko could somehow overpower the Avatar in his current condition and manage to get away undetected  – much less with Aang in tow  – Sokka couldn’t help the relieved breath that escaped him when he stepped back into their rooms to find Aang sitting at the table. (He would never admit that his worry might have rather been for the Prince’s safety and not Aang’s) The young Avatar was deep in thought while staring at a map lying in front of him on the table. Huh? Was he actually planning their next steps for a change? 

Upon their entry, the young monk’s head snapped up to them. “You are back. Did you meet Zuko’s uncle? How did it go? What did he say? I was right, wasn’t I? He is a nice guy.”

“Aang,” Katara interrupted him before Sokka could. “Everything went fine. He seemed nice and sincere in his worry.” She paused and shot Sokka a disapproving look. But that was fine, he deserved that. She would not understand that testing the old man had been necessary. After all, she didn’t understand some things about Ozai the way he did.

Katara walked up to Aang. “Has he come out of his room yet?” she asked with a sideward glance to Sokka’s room.

Aang gave a heavy sigh. “He asked for a new set of candles this morning. I gave him mine and he then immediately disappeared back into Sokka’s room again. But I figured that if he was doing his firebending thing from yesterday, then he’d probably need all his concentration and didn’t want to bother him.”

As long as this firebending thing didn’t involve the Fire Nation Prince going for a swim in the fucking polar sea. Sokka shivered at the memory of the absurd situation that had occurred last night.

Suddenly worried all over again, he made his way towards their shared room, not bothering to knock as it still was his room. The window was still closed, and the walls weren’t molten. True to his words, Zuko was sitting on the floor in one of the room’s corners facing the wall. Slowly, Sokka tiptoed to where the prince was sitting, careful to not startle him out of whatever meditative trance he’d thrown himself into.

While he still didn’t and probably never would understand the allure and cleansing effect sitting still apparently had, he knew after months of travelling with a monk that disturbing a meditation wasn’t something you did.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and fished out the folded paper he’d taken from Zuko’s uncle. He kneaded the paper between his fingers. Just as it had been with the note Zuko had given him, he found the urge to peek inside the letter to see what had been written almost overwhelming. He was naturally curious. And seeing secret messages being exchanged before his eyes and not being able to take a look was pure torture. Sokka winced at his own thoughts.

He glanced at Zuko’s still form, almost expecting him to have heard his thoughts and glower at him. But he hadn’t moved since Sokka had entered the room. He sat there unmoving; legs crossed. Only now did Sokka notice the candle Zuko had requested sitting on the floor in front of the prince. It had long burnt down. Weird. Didn’t Zuko need the fire to meditate? Had he been scared of asking for another candle? Sokka was about to break his own rule of no-disturbance and offer Zuko his own candle when he noticed the prince’s slumped shoulders. He’d blamed the deep slow breaths on Zuko’s meditative state but now that Sokka took a closer look at him, he realized that Zuko was, in fact, sleeping.

That was good, right? Zuko’s body probably needed all the sleep it could get to recover. Yet, from countless nights spent on Appa’s saddle high in the midnight clouds, Sokka knew all too well what it felt like to wake up with neck and shoulders so sore he thought he wouldn’t be able to move them ever again. He decided that waking the prince for a moment to lead him to the bed where he could continue sleeping would be the lesser evil.

Without thinking (and really, he later concluded that he must not have been thinking at all, otherwise he would not have done what he did) Sokka stepped up to Zuko, grabbed his left shoulder and shook him awake.

His face exploded with pain. Next thing he knew, he was lying on his back, sucking in frantic breaths to calm down. The ceiling blurred above him. With a groan, Sokka sat up, leaning on his elbows and gingerly touched his nose. There was no blood. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being knocked flat on his back that easily without even being injured.

He looked back up at Zuko, ready to explain just how unfair his skills were, and froze. Oh no.

Zuko was still sitting in the corner. But now his back was pressed to the wall, legs drawn to his chest, his arms half extended in front of and half shielding his chest, and his eyes were wide open, staring at…nothing.

“Shit, Zuko, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I am sorry.” His own stressed voice probably didn’t help much but he couldn’t help it.

Behind them, the door flew open and Katara’s furious voice rushed over them.

“Sokka, what happened?!” Sokka couldn’t discern for who the fury was and for who the worry.

“I, ah-“

“I am sorry. I overreacted. It won’t happen again.” What?

Zuko was now sitting up, his back straight, and he looked at Katara with an expression Sokka couldn’t describe as anything but intense.

“Yeah, no, dude. I startled you while you were sleeping. I am the one – “

“No, I hurt you. I am sorry.” In contrast to Zuko’s eyes, his voice held no strength. While his eyes were steady, Sokka noticed his hands in his lap were shaking as he waited for Katara’s answer.

“Sokka, are you alright?” Gosh, hadn’t Katara heard what he’d said? With an annoyed huff, Sokka turned around to finally face his sister who was still standing in the open doorway.

“Yes Katara, of course!” He didn’t mean to be harsh, but he hated being mothered by her and they definitely didn’t need for Zuko to feel like they were just waiting for him to make a misstep.

“And you, Zuko?”

Zuko gave her a confused look. “Sokka didn’t hurt me.”

The confused look Katara gave the prince in return almost rivalled his own.

“Of course not. That’s not what I meant.”

Sokka almost interrupted her at the insult, because was she implying that he wouldn’t be capable of hurting Zuko? What did she take him for?

“But he startled you badly.”

And yeah, the guilt about that quickly doused Sokka’s flaring pride.

At Katara’s observation, Zuko quickly glanced down at his clenched and still shaking hands before rolling forward on his feet and standing up in one move that was way too fluid for how badly Sokka knew Zuko was hurt. Standing, however, didn’t end as elegantly because Zuko must have misjudged his own strength as the momentum carried him forward two stumbling steps before he could catch himself on Katara’s outstretched arm.

Promptly, he snatched his hands back and straightened as if to prove a point.

“I’m fine.”

But his snappy growl was a far cry from what Sokka was used to from the prince and Katara seemed equally unimpressed. She simply gave a light shrug.

“If you say so.”

For a moment, Zuko looked as if he wanted to argue, then he looked between them and finally turned to Sokka.

“Why did you wake me?”

Sokka felt caught off guard. Because as much as Zuko seemed to have moved past whatever Sokka had pushed him into a minute ago, it took Sokka a moment to go from “I’m sorry I’ve reminded you of life-threatening torture” to his original reason for waking him in the first place.

So, instead of answering, he stuck out Iroh’s letter in front of him, offering the wrinkled paper to Zuko. For a moment, the paper’s texture reminded Sokka absurdly of the letter he’d nervously crumbled while waiting to meet Yue. While the fingers that practically snatched the letter from his hands were theoretically as royal as Yue’s, they felt nothing like hers. The fingertips that brushed his were rough and chapped, the skin brittle and dry.

Zuko unfolded the paper with a mumbled ‘thanks’ and then ignored them completely as he started to read whatever his uncle had to tell him.

Katara took that momentary diversion of the Fire Prince’s attention to pull Sokka with her back out of the room. 

“I know you’re dying of curiosity about what’s written in those letters, Sokka, but we have more important things to do now.”

Sokka was getting ready to defend himself against that insulting and  _ completely baseless  _ accusation when Katara just kept going.

“We have to lay out our plan on how we are going to get Zuko out of here. Aren’t you the one who always claims to be the ‘plan guy’?”

Alright, for now, Sokka could let that hidden compliment there soothe the lingering insult from before.

Aang was still sitting at their low table, maps laid out in front of him and now a steaming bowl of stew in his hands.

“Hey Sokka,” he greeted them while munching. “What happened in there? Was the letter that bad?”

His tone was light as always, only his pinched eyebrows gave away the whisper of real concern that shone through in his joking question.

“No, Sokka was just being an idiot.”  _ What? _

“What?! I  _ wasn’t _ . I… Okay, I maybe kinda was? Not the point. Everybody’s fine, nobody was harmed.” Once again, within a few minutes, Sokka wanted to grab his thoughts and words and cram them back into his mouth before they could reach anybody’s ears. “I mean, not additionally? Agh, can we just go back to our task at hand already?”

Aang seemed eager to diffuse the building awkwardness of Sokka’s rumbling and even Katara came to sit with them at the table, though not without sourly mumbling something about the size of Sokka’s mouth and his dinner portions.

Their discussion started out enthusiastic enough. But it soon became clear to Sokka that those maps Aang had been pouring over rather served more as a distraction from than as an aid to their dilemma.

Sure, it would come in handy to know which routes through the Earth Kingdom would lead them to the most adventurous “strategic outposts” as Aang called them  – and Sokka privately feared that those would probably turn out more like their Unagi encounter at Kyoshi Island than an Earth Kingdom version of the Puhai Stronghold.

Well, they had a problem to solve that lay way more in the present anyway.

Which turned out to be quite hard to solve, after all. Which showed especially by how extraordinary Sokka’s plans got as they talked.

“Yeh, sure, Sokka.” Katara interrupted his explanation with obvious agitation and sarcasm in her voice. “And how exactly are you planning to explain the sudden appearance of an almost extinct huge mammal in the middle of the city? Keep dreaming.”

Aang, ever the conserver of peace, was quick to interject the oncoming argument between the siblings.

“Talking about dreaming! I had a crazy dream last night. We were travelling all together somewhere where I’ve definitely never been before and I was practising water- and earthbending and suddenly Zuko interrupted us and shouted that I should hurry already because it was time for my firebending training and that I should do hot squats… though now that I think about it, I have no idea what hot squats might be. My brain can come up with pretty crazy stuff, huh?”

You might think that Sokka would have been used by now to the young Avatar’s floods of words, but once again he was left to sort and detangle those threads of information until realisation hit him hard.

“What? You dreamed that Zuko, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, was your firebending teacher?”

At Aang's hesitant nod, he let out a snort. 

“Okay, yeah. That was a crazy dream indeed.”

Contrary to his amusement, his sister now wore an almost scandalized expression on her face.

“Oh Aang, I hope you weren’t too scared? You know, we’ve already talked about that, you can always wake me when you have a nightmare.”

But Aang only waved his hands dismissively.

“No, no. You don’t get it. It wasn’t a bad dream. It was – ” Shifting his gaze back down at the maps, Aang trailed off.

“Anyway, let’s go back to the topic. We still need to figure out how we’ll get Zuko out of the city and back to his uncle.”

Sokka propped his chin on his hand, assuming the most deep-in-thought pose he could. 

“Honestly? I think the  _ how _ is highly dependent on the  _ when _ . Right now, they are searching the city for Zuko. It’s only a matter of time until they expand their searching area and start looking in the wasteland surrounding the city. On the one hand, that would make it a lot easier to sneak through the city undetected, on the other hand, the risk of Iroh’s ship or us being spotted gets a lot higher.” 

Katara nodded along. “So, we could either wait until they move even further into the wasteland on their search or we run just when they start arranging the searches outside the city?”

Sokka couldn't help the proud smile he gave his sister.

“Correct. We could visit Iroh once more and discuss a different rendezvous point and so eliminate the risk of him accidentally being found. I would say we wait four or five days and then head over to the old man again. What do you say?”

“There isn’t that much time left.”

In unison, Sokka, Aang and Katara whirled around with varying startled noises to where Zuko was leaning heavily against the frame of his now opened door.

“The Fire Nation is going to invade the Northern Water Tribe.”


End file.
